Universal Is Rebuilding the Original ‘Jurassic Park’ Timeline, Despite Success Under ‘World’ Banner
For more than a decade, the Jurassic franchise has revolved almost entirely around the Jurassic World era. From movies and theme park attractions to animated series and merchandise, Universal fully embraced the rebranded direction introduced by Colin Trevorrow’s billion-dollar blockbuster Jurassic World (2015).
But now, surprisingly, the studio appears to be slowly moving away from the World banner in certain corners of the franchise and quietly shifting back toward the original Jurassic Park timeline.
Last year saw the end of Jurassic World: Chaos Theory (2024-2025). While there’s every chance the animated side of the franchise could someday return under a different title in the same way Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous (2020-2022) essentially became Chaos Theory, Universal and Netflix have yet to announce another continuation following the show’s four-season run.
Meanwhile, Universal Studios Hollywood recently opened “Jurassic World: A Journey Through the Eras,” a limited-time walkthrough attraction celebrating the franchise’s history. Despite carrying the World branding, however, the experience leans heavily into the original trilogy, featuring characters such as John Hammond, Dennis Nedry, and Ian Malcolm and Jurassic Park vehicles and legacy dinosaur designs from the 1993 era.
The biggest example of this shift is easily Jurassic Park: Survival (TBA).
The upcoming first-person action-adventure game from Saber Interactive abandons the World era entirely and invites players back to Isla Nublar just 24 hours after the events of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park (1993).
The game follows Dr. Maya Joshi, an InGen scientist stranded on the island after the evacuation, forcing players to survive encounters with dinosaurs such as the T. rex, Dilophosaurus, and Velociraptor while exploring familiar locations from the original film.
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All of this is particularly interesting because the Jurassic World era has been hugely successful for Universal. Jurassic World (2015) grossed $1.671 billion worldwide, while Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) earned $1.310 billion and Jurassic World Dominion (2022) crossed the $1 billion mark with $1.004 billion globally.
The latest installment, Jurassic World Rebirth (2025), also performed well with $869.1 million worldwide, despite receiving a far more divisive reception from fans and critics.
The World era has completely transformed the wider franchise, too.
Universal Studios attractions were updated to reflect the newer films, including massive, permanent changes to Jurassic Park: The Ride and the introduction of VelociCoaster. The franchise has also expanded into touring exhibitions, Netflix animated TV shows, toy lines, video games like Jurassic World Evolution, and countless other licensing deals.
But despite that enormous success, Universal seems increasingly interested in revisiting the Park era alongside it.
Whether this becomes a permanent creative direction remains unclear. Jurassic World still makes a lot of money, and the studio is unlikely to abandon it completely. Still, the renewed focus on Isla Nublar, legacy characters, and the original Park timeline suggests Universal understands exactly where much of the franchise’s emotional connection lives.
Jurassic Park: Survival will be released on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
Would you like to see the Jurassic Park franchise finally return to the original era? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
