Whatever Happened to the Jurassic Park TV Series?
Think back to 1993 (if you were born then!) and you may remember that the world was in awe of perhaps one of the most exciting, innovative and unique movies ever made: Jurassic Park. With the famous ending of T-Rex saving the day from those pesky velociraptors who were determined to eat the stars of the movie, and the general hype surrounding the film (it made $3.1 million from midnight screenings on June 10th 1993, going on to earn $47 million in its first weekend), it is easy to forget that the movie was supposed to be complemented by a television series.
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Information regarding what would have been in the animated series is now available, and what seems clear is that the TV show would have possibly ended up being a slight repeat of what we saw in the sequel to the original film, Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World. Although we can always lament the failure of an excellent franchise to fulfil all of our desires, it is arguable that the failure of the plans to get onto TV could have ended up helping Jurassic Park to avoid just being a cult hit thanks to the success of Jurassic Park 2, which was enough (when combined with the original film) to have fans dreaming of the return of the franchise many years later. In fact, the desire to see the franchise return meant that it was one of our most hotly anticipated films of 2015 and it is testament to the strength of fan support for the franchise that Jeff Goldblum was able to reprise his role in the 2015 film. For those of you, though, who are hoping to see more than just the images and transcripts from the Jurassic Park animated series, it is worth noting that there is a penchant for bringing back the retro, with Nintendo and Atari both having looked to the past to achieve success in the present by appealing to the childhood memories of gamers and there is no reason why Universal won’t do the same with the Jurassic Park TV show, releasing it straight to DVD and aimed purely at ultra-fans.
So, Would the Jurassic World TV Series Be Better?
The excitement and intrigue were clearly there for the TV series, but the result could have ended up like the disappointing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull which was released in 2008; the posters and previews promised so much but then we had a film that saw Indiana Jones survive an atomic blast in a fridge… Despite these risks (!), the original show could even be picked up now and aired, with the potential for cashing in on the revival in popularity of the Jurassic Park franchise, especially as the hype around the movies is now as big as when the original show came out. This idea is already being jumped on by Fox, who have snapped up the chance to produce a TV show based on the Jurassic World film, which could well be a far better idea than that of the original TV show as it won’t be testing the audience by tweaking a film that was a huge family favourite and would instead be seen as an enjoyable reboot of a franchise.
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Indeed, with the sequel to Jurassic World already in the making with J. A. Bayona directing Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the time seems right for a few ‘filler’ instalments to help keep fans interested and engaged in the films, much like 2016’s Rogue One has done for the Star Wars juggernaut (becoming Disney’s fourth movie of 2016 to earn $1 billion in ticket sales).
Haven’t They Already Cashed in on Jurassic World?
Of course, the only problem with this is the key question: will fans find themselves being swamped by ‘fillers’? At the moment, after all, dino fans can take advantage of the Jurassic Park Builder app from Ludia, which is already hugely popular and takes elements from the original Jurassic Park film as well as Jurassic World, or there’s the chance to enjoy the action through the slot game which is available at Betway Casino between others and shows dinos wander through the player’s screen. If none of that is enough, there’s also the 2015 Lego video game, which allows gamers to play in cooperation mode in the Jurassic world. It may seem like this is market saturation, but the sheer popularity of the franchise seems to point at there being no limit to the amount of merchandising opportunities for the movie.
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The Jurassic World film has already earned the title of being the third highest-grossing film ever, so it is hardly financially desperate. Despite this, the TV show could help to create a story arc for fans to enjoy and to tantalise them before the release of Fallen World.
