Another dinosaur species is confirmed to be getting a redesign in the upcoming Jurassic World Rebirth.
The seventh film in the action-packed dinosaur franchise is a soft reboot/sequel to the most recent trilogy of Jurassic World films which concluded in 2022.
This new take on the Universal franchise comes from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story director Gareth Edwards, who is also bringing a fresh perspective on the dinosaurs in the story.
Updated Jurassic World Velociraptor Design Revealed
One of the dinosaurs confirmed to return in Jurassic World Rebirth is the deadly velociraptor and the species is getting an updated look in the 2025 film.
Promotional merchandise for the new Jurassic World film (advertised by LA Balloons) includes a foil mylar balloon sporting the scary new velociraptor design.
The imagery shows that the new velociraptor is quite intimidating, with more defined ridges on its skull, as well as pronounced markings and bright coloring on its face. Its eyes are beadier and the dinosaur also features some quills on the back of its head and neck.
Many have been quick to notice that the updated velociraptor design bears some similarities to the species' depiction in Jurassic Park III.
While the design changes are subtle, the dinosaurs do look distinctly different when compared to the velociraptors from Jurassic World. The previous raptors had more rounded faces with even coloring and lacked the distinctive colors of the Jurassic World Rebirth velociraptor.
Why the Velociraptor Design Is Being Changed
The Jurassic films often change up their dinosaur designs between titles to keep the creatures feeling new and scary. However, there are a couple of reasons the velociraptor refresh makes sense.
Jurassic World Rebirth takes its cast of new characters to a new island that served as the research facility for the original Jurassic Park. This has resulted in many different variations of dinosaurs spawning from the DNA that was utilized on the island (including some terrifying mutant dinosaurs).
For that reason, it makes sense that the velociraptors might look slightly different from the ones from Jurassic World seeing as they were created under different conditions.
The velociraptors in Jurassic World Rebirth also serve a different purpose to those in the Jurassic World trilogy.
In recent films, the velociraptors were made out to be allies of the humans, with Chris Pratt's character, Owen, forming a close bond with them. This is partly the reason why those velociraptors had friendlier faces, which helped make them more appealing.
However, in Jurassic World Rebirth the dinosaurs are supposed to be more intimidating than ever, which is likely why the new design has amped up the predator features of the velociraptor.
Jurassic World Rebirth will be released in theatres on July 2, 2025.
