Summary

• Lex and Tim Murphy could have brought the Jurassic saga full circle in Jurassic World Dominion.
• Amanda Kirby could have repaid her ex-husband's sacrifice in a heroic way in the film.
• Nick Van Owen could have provided some much-needed comic relief to the dull and humorless Jurassic World Dominion.

From Nick Van Owen to Lex and Tim Murphy, there are a bunch of missing Jurassic Park characters who could’ve saved the critically panned Jurassic World Dominion. Jurassic World Dominion promised to be a sort of Avengers: Endgame for the Jurassic Park saga, bringing the stars of the old classics and the stars of the new reboots together in one big mega ensemble. Chris Pratt’s Owen Grady and Bryce Dallas Howard’s Claire Dearing both returned as expected, but Dominion also brought back Sam Neill as Alan Grant, Laura Dern as Ellie Sattler, and Jeff Goldblum as Ian Malcolm.

Unfortunately, having this iconic trio reprise their roles from the original movie wasn’t enough to save Jurassic World Dominion from being a bitter disappointment. It did well at the box office, as movies featuring realistic-looking dinosaurs are wont to do, but it was widely panned by critics and it’s considered a wholly dissatisfying conclusion to this six-film epic. There are a bunch of other characters from earlier Jurassic Park movies that were completely ignored by Dominion and actually had the potential to save the finale from its dismal reception.

8 Billy Brennan Could've Gotten A Redemption Arc In Jurassic World Dominion

In Jurassic Park III, Billy Brennan was introduced as an eager young graduate student working under Grant’s tutelage at a dig site. When Grant is called to Isla Sorna to save a missing child from a pack of dinosaurs, Billy goes along for the ride. Grant is furious when he learns that Billy has stolen raptor eggs, which is the reason that the raptors have been hunting them so relentlessly. He ends up getting a sort of redemption in the movie, as he saves the kid from a Pteranodon attack, but it was pretty brief.

After being presumed dead, Billy is rescued by the military at the end of Jurassic Park III, so he could’ve easily returned in one of the subsequent sequels. A quick, tagged-on act of heroism wasn’t really enough to give this character a full redemption arc. If he’d returned in Jurassic World Dominion, he could’ve gotten a proper redemption arc to make up for the recklessness of stealing the eggs and the selfishness of putting everyone else at risk.

7 Zach & Gray Mitchell Could've Reunited With Their Aunt

The first Jurassic World movie is told largely through the eyes of Claire’s nephews, Zach and Gray Mitchell, who happen to be visiting the park on the day that the experimental T. rex hybrid gets loose and wreaks havoc on the crowds of tourists. Initially, Zach and Gray don’t really like their workaholic aunt, because she barely has any time for them. She gives them a rudimentary hello before disappearing to a meeting and passing them off onto one of her corporate underlings. However, by the end of the film, they view their aunt as a dinosaur-slaying badass.

It would’ve been interesting to see an older Zach and Gray reunite with their aunt in Jurassic World Dominion. The movie’s emotional storyline sees Claire struggling to adapt to her new parental role after adopting Maisie Lockwood. But Claire has taken on a parental role before, when she protected Zach and Gray from the carnage at Jurassic World, and it would’ve been interesting to bring them back to meet their new cousin.

6 Amanda Kirby Could've Repaid Her Ex-Husband's Sacrifice

In Jurassic Park III, divorced couple Paul and Amanda Kirby reconcile their relationship as they go to Isla Sorna to save their missing son from the dinosaur-infested island. Paul was initially characterized as meek and useless, but he ended up becoming a hero by the end of the movie. When the group was attacked by a Spinosaurus on their way off the island, Paul used himself as bait to lure the dinosaur away and give the others a chance to escape. Paul’s sacrifice completed his journey from a useless protector to a noble hero, but Amanda’s arc is still incomplete.

Amanda had rekindled her love for Paul by the end of the movie, but his sacrifice cut their reunion short. Paul’s sacrifice is what allowed Amanda to live another day. If she’d returned in Jurassic World Dominion, then she could’ve repaid that heroism and made her own sacrifice to allow others to survive. She could’ve paid Paul’s heroism forward and become a hero in her own right.

5 Nick Van Owen Could've Brought Some Much-Needed Comic Relief To Jurassic World Dominion

Vince Vaughn provided the comic relief in The Lost World: Jurassic Park in the role of Nick Van Owen, the videographer that Malcolm brought on his expedition to Isla Sorna. Nick is a field photographer who’s been amongst dangerous wildlife and deadly warzones to capture interesting images on film. As an impartial observer, he was the perfect character to crack jokes and one-liners and comment on the dire situations that the characters find themselves in. He’s not there to take a side; he’s just there to take pictures.

Bringing back Vaughn to reprise his role as Nick in Jurassic World Dominion would’ve brought some much-needed humor to the film. Despite being a cross between a Jurassic dinosaur thriller and a globetrotting James Bond action-adventure, Jurassic World Dominion was a surprisingly dull and humorless affair. Having Vaughn there to crack wise in every big set-piece would’ve helped to rectify that. He could’ve had a great back-and-forth with Pratt.

4 Lowery Could've Switched To The Right Side Of The Dinosaur Debate

Jake Johnson reunited with his Safety Not Guaranteed director Colin Trevorrow to provide the comic relief in the role of Lowery in the first Jurassic World film. Lowery was the operations overseer at the park who naively idolized John Hammond as a misunderstood genius and remembered the original park that resulted in people’s deaths with a fond sense of nostalgia. Johnson could’ve reunited with Trevorrow to reprise his role as Lowery when Trevorrow returned to the director’s chair for Jurassic World Dominion (after just working on the script for Fallen Kingdom).

Lowery does technically appear in Dominion, but only as a blink-and-miss-it Easter egg. A brief glimpse at a profile on Franklin Webb’s tablet reveals that Lowery is now working for the CIA in the Dangerous Species Division. Seeing Lowery’s work with the CIA, trying to keep America’s influx of live dinosaurs under control, would’ve been really exciting. It’s a shame that this Easter egg wasn’t fleshed out into a full storyline for the character.

3 Eric Kirby's Childhood Trauma Could've Brought A Unique Perspective To The Dinosaur Invasion

The plot of Jurassic Park III saw Alan Grant reluctantly traveling to Isla Sorna to help Paul and Amanda Kirby navigate the dinosaur-infested forest to find their missing 12-year-old son, Eric Kirby. Before they find him, Eric has been stranded on Site B for almost eight weeks, and the only company he had for those eight weeks were the bloodthirsty dinosaurs trying to hunt him down. No one understands the plight of learning to co-exist with dinosaurs like Eric.

In Jurassic World Dominion, the world is adjusting to a dinosaur invasion after a bunch of live dinosaurs were unleashed into the North American ecosystem. After surviving eight weeks on a dinosaur-infested island, Eric has already adjusted to what everyone else on Earth is trying to adjust to after the twist ending of Fallen Kingdom. If he was incorporated into the cast of Jurassic World Dominion, he could’ve brought a wholly unique perspective to the storyline of dinosaurs integrating themselves into the modern natural world.

2 Dr. Sarah Harding Could've Added Some Tension To Ian Malcolm's Storyline

While it was a joy to see Jeff Goldblum back in the role of Ian Malcolm, and with a more substantial appearance than his single-location cameo in Fallen Kingdom, Jurassic World Dominion didn’t do much with the character. Goldblum gets plenty of opportunities to riff his way through sequences involving angry T. rexes and control panels, but Malcolm doesn’t have much of an arc in the film. There’s one character from Jurassic sequels past who could’ve brought some tension and drama to Malcolm’s storyline.

Dr. Sarah Harding is a behavioral paleontologist who specializes in dinosaur parenting behavior. She was played by Julianne Moore in The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Harding had a tumultuous romance with Malcolm throughout The Lost World, and it’s implied that they broke up some time after the events of the film. Bringing these two ex-lovers back together would’ve added an interesting character dynamic.

1 Lex & Tim Murphy Could've Brought The Jurassic Saga Full Circle

The most important Jurassic Park characters that were missing from Jurassic World Dominion were Lex and Tim Murphy, the grandchildren of John Hammond who got stranded in the dinosaur-infested enclosures with Alan Grant in the second act of the first movie. Lex managed to singlehandedly hack the park’s cybersecurity system, while Tim had extensive dinosaur knowledge to rival Grant’s; he idolized Grant and had read all his work at a young age. It would’ve made sense for both of these kids to continue to play key roles in the Jurassic Park sequels, but they’ve been ignored by every subsequent movie.

It would’ve brought the Jurassic saga full circle to bring back grown-up Lex and Tim for roles in Jurassic World Dominion. Lex might be the head of a top cybersecurity firm and Tim might be a paleontologist following in Grant’s footsteps. It would’ve been a good idea to give them a call when dinosaurs were running rampant across the world and Lewis Dodgson was trying to capitalize on it. Bringing back Lex and Tim would’ve given the Jurassic series a much more fitting and satisfying ending than what Jurassic World Dominion ultimately delivered.