After Jurassic World Rebirth, it’s essential that the next movie in the franchise redeems one fan-favorite dinosaur species. There are plenty of dinosaurs in Jurassic World Rebirth, some of which have appeared in numerous films, such as the T. rex, the Mosasaurus, and the Spinosaurus. However, the franchise’s newest movie also focused on some brand-new hybrid dinosaurs: Mutadons and the menacing D-rex.
The inclusion of the Mutadons and the D-rex led to many thrills at the end of Jurassic World Rebirth. However, overall, critics and fans were quite underwhelmed by the movie, and many reviews for Jurassic World Rebirth have been quite negative. This is disappointing, especially since it was meant to start a new era for the franchise.
However, it was undoubtedly a major box office success. As of this writing, it has managed to gross $828 million at the worldwide box office (via Box Office Mojo), which basically guarantees that Jurassic World 5 will happen. Even though Rebirth wasn’t quite a return to form, Jurassic World 5 is still exciting, and hopefully it can finally make raptors scary again.
Raptors Were Replaced In Jurassic World Rebirth
Surprisingly, raptors are barely featured in Jurassic World Rebirth. About halfway through the movie, after the Delgado family gets stranded on Île Saint-Hubert, Xavier goes to relieve himself in the middle of the night. Two raptors slowly sneak up on him, but the deadly dinosaurs never make it since they both get snatched up by Mutadons.
Xavier doesn’t see this happen, so he never really finds out how much danger he was in. As we have seen in previous Jurassic movies, raptors are one of the most dangerous dinosaur species to encounter. One of the series’ most iconic scenes is when the pack of raptors is hunting Lex and Tim in the kitchen in the original Jurassic Park.
Rebirth recreated many Jurassic Park scenes, but the thrilling kitchen sequence was not one of them. In fact, Xavier going to the bathroom is the only time that raptors are seen in Rebirth. The movie failed to portray raptors as some of the most dangerous dinosaurs in the entire franchise, which is a shame.
Jurassic World Rebirth essentially replaced them with Mutadons. Showing the two raptors easily get snatched up by Mutadons immediately establishes that the hybrid dinosaurs are way stronger. Mutadons return at the end of the movie and create many problems for the characters, while raptors are nowhere to be seen.
However, raptors were initially supposed to reappear at the end of Jurassic World Rebirth. As posted by The Hollywood Reporter on X/Twitter, a group of raptors emerge from the smoke and approach the characters in a deleted scene that was originally planned to be part of the movie’s climax. Since this scene was deleted, it’s easy to forget that raptors are in Jurassic World Rebirth at all.
Even if this deleted scene was featured in the movie, it still wouldn’t have portrayed raptors in the way they deserve. During this scene, the group of raptors run away from the characters since they are clearly scared of the unseen D-rex, which is making its way towards the abandoned Île Saint-Hubert village. Therefore, raptors were never planned to have a menacing role in Jurassic World Rebirth.
The Previous Jurassic World Movies Also Misused Raptors
Compared to Rebirth, the previous three Jurassic World movies featured raptors way more. However, they also made them appear far less intimidating than they should be. The first Jurassic World movie showed Owen training a pack of raptors. Owen establishing a strong bond with the raptors, especially Blue, was an interesting storyline, but completely changed how viewers perceived the dinosaur species.
In the first three Jurassic Park movies, raptors were terrifying creatures that killed many characters. In addition to the aforementioned kitchen sequence, the very first scene in Jurassic Park featured a dinosaur handler getting killed by a raptor. They should definitely be one of the scariest species in the franchise.
Instead, the first three Jurassic World movies treated raptors as allies for Owen and the other characters. Obviously, Blue and the other raptors in his pack were still very dangerous, but they never necessarily made viewers uneasy since they would never turn on the main characters. It’s now well past time to make raptors scary again in the Jurassic franchise.
After they were completely underused in Rebirth, Jurassic World 5 definitely needs to make raptors one of the most prominent dinosaur species. Since Rebirth was just released, no details are known about the franchise’s next movie. However, it’s possible that Jurassic World 5‘s characters will visit Île Saint-Hubert, which could allow raptors to get revenge against the Mutadons.
If it’s instead set on a different island, then raptors should still be shown as terrifying predators. If this isn’t the case, then raptors might never be taken seriously in the franchise again. This would be incredibly disappointing, so I hope Jurassic World Rebirth wasn’t the beginning of the downfall of raptors.
