Rupert Friend And Scarlett Johansson to Team for New Jurassic World Movie

Rupert Friend will be doing something with dinosaurs, as the British actor will star alongside Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey in Universal Pictures brand new Jurassic World movie.

While nothing it known about this new iteration, the new Jurassic World film is the latest in the 30-year-old franchise, which began with Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, the 1993 hit based on Michael Crichton’s novel. 

Gareth Edwards (The Creator) is directing with Scarlett Johansson in talks to join the new blockbuster. Edwards replaced David Leitch following his attachment to the project.

The new Jurassic World film is set to start production in mid-June in London with a theatrical release of July 2, 2025.

Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley, who have shepherded the modern Jurassic franchise, will produce through Kennedy-Marshall. Steven Spielberg, who kicked off the franchise in 1993 with Jurassic Park, is exec producing through Amblin Entertainment. Executive Vice President production development Sara Scott and creative executive of production development Jacqueline Garell are overseeing the project for the studio.

Friend has been seen in The French Dispatch as well as Asteroid City. He can currently be seen in two of four of Anderson’s shorts based on the Roald Dahl short stories, The Swan and The Rat Catcher. The shorts appear on Netflix. The actor, who also played the Grand Inquisitor opposite Ewan McGregor on Star Wars Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi, recently wrapped the Zach Cregger-produced sci-fi thriller Companion for New Line and will be seen in Michel Franco’s upcoming drama Dreams opposite Jessica Chastain. 

Johansson has starred as Black Widow in a number of Marvel Studios movies, including the Avengers features, but unlike some co-stars in the superhero world, has had no trouble breaking out in other projects. She has earned two Oscar nominations, for Marriage Story and Jojo Rabbit. She has a voice role in the upcoming animated feature Transformers One and has a big-budget Apple feature co-starring Channing Tatum also due out this year.