Why Jake Johnson's Jurassic World Character Isn't In Fallen Kingdom

Why Jake Johnson's Jurassic World Character Isn't In Fallen Kingdom

by Ryan Gerhardt – on Jul 08, 2018 in Movie News

As Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom continues to claw its way up the global box office charts, moviegoers may notice a key character absent from the Jurassic World cast as Jake Johnson’s control room operator Lowery Cruthers doesn’t appear. While it’s been known since October 2016 that Johnson wouldn’t be reprising the role, the reason behind his omission has finally been revealed.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom marks the second film in the new trilogy from Universal's dinosaur franchise, introducing an extinction-level event for the reincarnated animals. Chris Pratt returns as behavioral researcher Owen Grady and Bryce Dallas Howard reprises her role as Claire Dearing, with Daniella Pineda being introduced as paleo-veterinarian Zia Rodriguez and Jeff Goldblum appearing as the iconic Ian Malcolm. This time around, Claire - now head of the Dinosaur Protection Group - and the film’s heroes race against time and a volcano to save the remaining dinosaurs. Johnson’s Cruthers, however, is nowhere to be found.

Related: Sam Neill & Laura Dern Could Appear In Jurassic World 3

According to an Empire interview with director J.A. Bayona, as well as producer and co-writer Colin Trevorrow, Johnson’s character was in an early draft of the story and could have made a return to Isla Nublar in a similar role. Ultimately, however, he was replaced by Justice Smith’s jumpy and anxiety-ridden systems analyst Franklin Webb. While both characters would have brought comparable skill sets to the team, Bayona and Trevorrow chose to replace Cruthers with Webb to better reflect the film’s idealistic undertone.

"There may have even been an early moment where Lowery was Franklin's character, because he potentially could have done that job. But he didn't quite have the same spirit. We did like the idea of [Zia and Franklin] being pretty idealistic young people who are activists who really believe in the cause that Claire believes in. I wasn't really able to shoehorn [Lowery] into that, he's kind of a cynical guy."

Cynicism aside, Johnson’s Cruthers was a clear dinosaur fanboy, having proudly paid $150 for a vintage Jurassic Park T-shirt in 2015’s Jurassic World. While the New Girl actor missed out on a return to the island, he has continued to star in a range of blockbuster and indie films from Win It All and Tag to The Mummy reboot in 2017 that was intended to kick off Universal’s Dark Universe. Johnson is also set to lend his voice to the upcoming animated feature Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Johnson’s character would have undoubtedly brought a different type of comic relief to the latest installment. By shifting the cast around, though, the franchise is now able to strike a lighter note while also adding younger actors to carry on the story. With the currently untitled Jurassic World 3 set to hit the big screen in June 2021, it’ll be interesting to see if Johnson will make his way back into the fold to help close out the trilogy.

More: Jurassic World 3: Every Update You Need to Know

Source: Empire

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