Believe it or not, it was only a month ago that John Wick helmer David Leitch was in line to direct the next Jurassic World movie (which is rumoured to be titled Jurassic City).
A few days later, "creative differences" led to his departure and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and The Creator director Gareth Edwards almost immediately stepped in to replace him. Since then, the cast has quickly started taking shape.
Scarlett Johansson is in talks to lead the movie (Dev Patel is also rumoured to appear) and we may now have news on its big bad.
According to scooper Daniel Richtman, Fear The Walking Dead and The Color Purple star Colman Domingo is being eyed to play Jurassic City's villain. The actor was recently nominated for an Oscar for his work in Rustin and should make for a formidable big bad in this next chapter of the long-running franchise.
As you might expect, there's no word on who Domingo might be playing.
What we do know is that Jurassic World stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard aren't expected to return and neither are franchise vets, Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern and Sam Neill.
David Koepp, the writer of Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park is penning the screenplay, with Steven Spielberg serving as executive producer.
"I was about to take a break and I started writing my next idea for a film and this is the only movie that would make me drop everything like a stone and dive right in," Edwards recently said of his decision to take a crack at Jurassic City. "To work with Frank Marshall and Universal and David Koepp, who's writing the script, I think they're all legends. So I'm just very excited."
The Jurassic franchise began with the release of Jurassic Park in 1993, directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the novel by Michael Crichton. The movie follows a group of people visiting a dinosaur theme park on a remote island, where the cloned dinosaurs break free and wreak havoc.
Its success led to multiple sequels, including The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Jurassic Park III (2001), and the reboot series starting with Jurassic World (2015). Those films expand on the concept of dinosaur cloning and feature various attempts to exploit or control the creatures for profit or scientific research.
Universal Pictures is keen to get Jurassic City into theaters as soon as possible and has set a July 2, 2025 release date.