Jurassic World Theory: Chris Pratt's Character Was The Young Boy In 'Jurassic Park'

So this Jurassic World fan theory has popped up a few times over the past year, but with the movie finally hitting theaters it seems to be gaining momentum and I thought it might be fun to discuss. Could it be possible that Chris Pratt's raptor-trainer character Owen in Jurassic World could be a character we've seen before in Steven Spielberg's original Jurassic Park? Lets examine the evidence and then find out what director Colin Trevorrow has to say about it, after the jump.

In Steven Spielberg's original 1993 film Jurassic Park, Whit Hertford plays a character named in the credits simply as "Volunteer Boy". The character is a young boy who is volunteering on Dr Alan Grant's (Sam Neill) dig site who during Grant's theory about how dinosaurs's bird ancestry comments that the velociraptor "doesn't look very scary".

The kid jokes that it looks "more like a 6 foot turkey." Grant then goes on to scare the kid by telling him how raptors hunt and kill their pray. The presentation leaves the kid a bit scared, and he agrees to show "a little bit of respect". Here is the whole clip of the early Jurassic Park sequence here:

The theory is that that kid not only went on to respect raptors, but he grew up learning everything he could about them. And when it was announced that Jurassic World would be opening, he applied for a position on the island working with raptors. Remember how Grant showed the kid to "show a little respect" to the raptors. In Jurassic World, Pratt's character Owen even describes his relationships with the parks raptors as "a relationship based on respect". You can hear Pratt's character speak the line at the beginning of this Jurassic World trailer:

Chris Pratt is 35 years old, only a year younger than Whit Hertford who played the "Volunteer Kid" in the original Jurassic World. So the age range chronology does fit.

I'm not sure where this Jurassic World theory originates but I do know Community creator Dan Harmon (who I believe came up the theory) was the first person to share the theory to a large audience on his podcast Harmontown. Its an interesting and fun fan theory, but I'm not sure it lines up completely.

The production notes for the film reveal that the character of Owen is an ex-military expert in animal behavior who has been hired to work at a secluded research base on the periphery of the main park. Owen has spent years training and studying the pack of aggressive Velociraptors, "over whom he's established an alpha relationship that balances the animals precariously between reluctant obedience and predatory revolt." I'm not sure the military background gels completely with the theory but its fun to consider.

So I decided to ask Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow if they had intended for Chris Pratt's character Owen to be the grown up version of the volunteer kid character from Jurassic Park, and here is what he had to say in response:

"I'm not sure I want to answer because the speculation is so much fun. Let's not kill the fun."

So the mystery will remain a mystery. But don't ask Whit Hertford, the actor who played "Volunteer Boy" in Jurassic Park, he believes otherwise:

What do you think of this Jurassic World theory? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!