Jurassic World 2: Colin Trevorrow And Frank Marshall Talk Future Of The Franchise

Jurassic World dominated the box office this past weekend, raking in over $511 million worldwide making it the #1 global opening of all-time. And over the weekend we told you that Chris Pratt is already signed on for the inevitable Jurassic World sequels. We have a lot of clues as to what Jurassic World 2 might be about and who might be involved, and we know Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow has said that he won't be back in the director's chair.

When I spoke with Trevorrow last week I learned the details on why he isn't returning to direct Jurassic World 2, how he will remain involved in the franchise, who might helm the second film and how he went about setting up future Jurassic World sequels in his film both plot-wise and thematically. I also get a Jurassic World 2 update from producer Frank Marshall.

Spoilers for Jurassic World follow. In Jurassic World, future installments of the franchise are set-up when it is revealed that Dr. Henry Wu (BD Wong) has been working behind Simon Masrani's (Irrfan Khan) back in helping create some new genetically hybrid dinosaurs for a secret INGEN project.

While Hoskins (Vincent D'Onofrio) doesn't make it off the island alive, we see that Wu does make it away via helicopter, as does his research and dan samples for the secret genetically hybrid dinosaurs. Before Hoskins' demise, INGEN's plans to use the new dinosaurs as living weapons is revealed.

We don't know where this storyline will head, although there are some clues online. But lets hear from Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow and producer Frank Marshall for the first time on how the Jurassic World sequels are being planned.

Here is an until-now unpublished transcript from my interview with Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow talking about why he isn't returning to direct Jurassic World 2 and how he helped set up the future of the franchise:

Peter Sciretta: I was also going to ask... obviously there's concern of, you know, this is a reboot so they want sequels and you've already said that you're, this is it for you for directing. But there's obviously some setups for a sequel or sequels... How involved was the studio or Steven in what choices were made in those set-ups? Or how does that come about with you and Derek?Colin Trevorrow: Well part of the job and part of what Steven asked me to do is to build something that built a foundation that could be expanded upon. And this idea, you know, I think I should make it very clear to readers of Slash Film and there's a lot of people who read your Website, who I think when you hear that someone, where I'm at right now would choose not to continue with this franchise, you're gonna think one of three things. Either I did a bad job, the movie sucks, they had a bad experience with me or I had a bad experience doing the movie. None of those things are true. This was such a positive experience for me. I loved it so much. Arguably because I loved it so much I don't see how I could have a better experience making a dinosaur movie. I'm not sure how I could make a dinosaur movie that gives anymore than I gave to this movie.

But it is part of my responsibility to make sure that there aren't diminishing returns in the future and that it can expand into something that continues to be worth of its name. And so, that decision for me not to direct another one, I will be creatively involved, but to not to direct, that actually happened a long time ago. Even in our early conversations, I felt like look I feel a responsibility to myself as a filmmaker to make different kinds of films. And it's not that I wanna just go make personal films and never make big franchise movies again, I love big franchise movies. These movies are awesome. They can be awesome. But I do and this is a sincere opinion, I think that these movies are very difficult to make sequels to. And we've seen that. And I think that this franchise would be best served by utilizing the model of Mission: Impossible where you have something that could become repetitive. And you combat that by bringing in new voices and I can think of several men and women who are have could make a extremely interesting and completely different versions of a dinosaur movie than the one I just made.

Peter Sciretta: Who would you like to see?Colin Trevorrow: (smiles) I'm not saying it.Peter Sciretta: No, okay.Colin Trevorrow: No, that's part of my job is to try and identify someone. So I got some ideas. (smiles)

Hit the jump to find out how director Colin Trevorrow put together the seeds for Jurassic World 2 and future sequels in Jurassic World, as well as get a quick update on the sequel from producer Frank Marshall.

My interview with Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow continues below:

Peter Sciretta: As for the foundations, there is the park itself but there's obviously some things that escape this movie, which are cleverly planted to set up sequels. And I like you didn't do the thing that a lot of rebooted franchises do where it leaves it with like this cliffhanger and it feels like it's a setup for more. It happens like three-fourths of the way into the movie. And then there's a lot more and you almost forget about it.Colin Trevorrow: Right.Peter Sciretta: But how did that come about?Colin Trevorrow: It's somewhat a plot based setup for the future. And that matters to a certain extent. But if we hadn't done that, you could easily manufacture that. You know, in a second film. So I find it actually the least functional setup for the future of everything that we do. There are themes and ideas in here that we're setting up, such as the coexistence of these animals on the planet with humans. In the same way that we exist with animals now. And  imagine a world where just like, you know, don't go into that jungle, there's tigers in there. They're gonna eat you. Just replace that with raptors. And I think we set up ideas in here. One of them, the one we address the most is the weaponization of dinosaurs and the fact that animals have been used in war for centuries. And there are people with completely bonkers ideas that are always gonna step in and wonder how else we can utilize a new technology. And also in this there was a line in the movie that I cut. And sometimes I wonder if I should have, but I needed the scene to move in a certain way. But there was a line where Doctor Wu says to Irrfan Khan or B.D. Wong says to Irrfan Khan, you know, how long do you think you're gonna be able to control her? We won't always be the only ones who can make a dinosaur. And that idea to me has a lot of potential in it that like nuclear power there could be a something that goes open source and there could be many entities who might have this ability to create these things and use them for various needs and purposes. So there's potential in there. For something.

I talked to Jurassic World producer Frank Marshall last Monday (June 8th 2015) and asked him about the seeds planted for Jurassic World 2 and further sequels and he told me the following:

Well they were pretty general in that we leave the door open to have further chapters in the story.  What's funny is I'm on my way to have lunch with the studio and Colin to talk about a sequel.  Like now.