Jeff Goldblum, who starred in Jurassic Park and its sequel as Dr. Ian Malcolm, has signed on to reprise his role in next year’s Jurassic World 2.
There was a lot of good things happening in the first Jurassic Park film that came out in 1993. Directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the book by Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park took us on a adventure featuring a bunch of dinosaurs and some semi-sensical science. Among the nerds taken on the adventure is Jeff Goldblum’s Dr. Ian Malcolm, the Chaos Theory expert. Basically, he’s the first person to explain that even the smallest, unpredictable “imperfections” can cause a lot of disaster.
Despite surviving the horror of the first film, Malcolm returned in the sequel alongside Vince Vaughn and Julianne Moore. By the third film, the character was discredited and treated like an opportunist.
But now he’s back. As The Hollywood Reporter exclusively learned, Goldblum will reprise his role as Dr. Ian Malcolm in next year’s Jurassic World 2 — which is the second greatest news that franchise could unveil. (The best news would be Sam Neill’s return.) My Jurassic World theory is that half its money was made off of people desperately hoping for some surprise cameos.
And here’s my other theory: Justice Smith plays his son. The Get Down star joined the franchise a few months ago to play a “young scientist.” So he may be the perfect reason to pull Malcolm back into the game.
Of course, The Lost World: Jurassic Park saw Malcolm travel to Isla Sorna to rescue his girlfriend, Sarah (Moore). Additionally, we meet his daughter, Kelly. At some point, the film hinted that Malcolm has a few children, possibly with a few different mothers.
And guess what? I could totally see Justice Smith playing the child of Goldblum and Moore’s characters. (I didn’t go into the timeline, but also, who cares? The movie’s about dinosaurs, so realism isn’t a huge factor.)
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Honestly, I hope the franchise keeps building toward more cameos.
Jurassic World 2 releases in theaters on June 22, 2018.