Gareth Edwards will not return to direct the sequel to Jurassic World Rebirth, parting ways with Universal Pictures over creative differences, according to Variety.

Edwards had been expected to steer the follow-up after directing the 2025 original, which grossed $870 million worldwide — a strong number for a franchise that had already seen three consecutive instalments cross $1 billion globally between 2015 and 2022 under the Jurassic World banner, led by Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard. Universal issued a statement saying it had "an incredible experience" working with Edwards on Rebirth.

The departing director is a filmmaker with a particular range. Edwards broke through with Monsters, a 2010 indie horror shot for roughly $500,000, before scaling up to blockbusters: Godzilla (2014), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) and The Creator (2023). His work on Rebirth — a film built around a top-secret quest to retrieve dinosaur DNA for a miracle drug, starring Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali and Jonathan Bailey — marked his first entry in the Jurassic franchise.

The sequel will be the eighth film in a series that began with Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park in 1993. Spielberg also directed the 1997 follow-up, The Lost World; Joe Johnston took the third, Jurassic Park III, in 2001. Spielberg's influence on the property runs deep — the Jurassic World films, produced under his Amblin banner, carried the franchise into a new era starting in 2015.

Screenwriter David Koepp, who scripted Rebirth, is expected to return for the sequel. Koepp has been a steady hand in the franchise's writers' room going back to the original 1993 screenplay, adapted from Michael Crichton's novel. Universal had hoped to begin shooting in 2027, though Edwards' departure puts the search for a new director front and centre.

Jurassic productions are among the most expensive in the business — budgets regularly exceed $250 million before marketing costs. For context, that figure does not include print-and-advertising spend, the promotional budget a studio lays out to get audiences into theatres. A director change this early in development is disruptive, but not unusual for a property of this scale; studios routinely replace filmmakers during the development window before cameras roll.

For fans, the practical question is timing. If Universal holds to its 2027 production target, the sequel is still likely a couple of years from screens. A new director will need to be named, the script finalised, and a cast assembled around whatever story Koepp delivers.

No replacement has been announced.