One of the highlights of 2015’sJurassic WorldwasJake Johnson’s character Lowery Cruthers, but there’s a chance he maynotget his triumphant return inJurassic World: Dominion. Lowery was a park employee at the fully functional Jurassic World, but he also was a Jurassic Park superfan – a metatextual nod to the franchise’s devoted fanbase. Lowery learned to be careful what he wished for when Jurassic World was overrun by dinosaurs, and while we know he made it out of there alive, he did not appear in the 2018 sequelJurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
But withColin Trevorrowback in the director’s chair forJurassic World 3and a story that brings together the cast of theJWfranchise (Chris PrattandBryce Dallas Howard) with the cast of the original franchise (Sam Neill,Laura Dern, andJeff Goldbumare all reprising their roles), it feels right to have Lowery back in the action in some way, shape or form.
And that was the plan, until the pandemic hit. I spoke with Johnson recently in anticipation of his new animated Netflix seriesHoops, which premieres on August 21st, and during our conversation I asked if he’d be returning forJurassic World: Dominion. The actor revealed that he was supposed to head over to the UK where production is based right before the pandemic hit, and now he may find himself in a scheduling conflict with his ABC seriesStumptown:
“I was getting ready to go out and then this pandemic hit and so everything got pushed and the schedule got rearranged, and now we’re trying to figure it out because obviously I’m inStumptownand we’re going into Season 2 of that. So we’re figuring out the scheduling and how and if we can make it work. But Colin Trevorrow, the director, is a good friend, we’re old friends and we’ve been talking a lot and we’re trying to figure out how to do it.”
At the end ofFallen Kingdom, a host of dinosaurs got out and are now running rampant on Earth, so I told Johnson it’d be great to see how Lowery is reacting to this particular scenario. He said he and Trevorrow have been having the same conversation:
“It’s funny because Colin and I had the same talk where we said everything is getting really tricky but there’s something we don’t wanna just throw away. If this is the big finale and everybody’s coming back, there would be something amiss if Lowery didn’t at least make an appearance.”
This is the finale ofsomethingbut not the entire franchise, as producerFrank Marshallpreviously revealedthe plan is forJurassicto continueafterDominion. But this does feel like an ending of sorts, and Johnson had a wild pitch for Lowery’s physical appearance this time around:
“At one point I pitched that he has like a huge pony tail now and he’s got like an army jacket and he’s kind of going through some PTSD of what he lived through. I wanted the 70s glasses and he’s always smoking a cigarette, but luckily Colin said no so we’ll see what happens (laughs). I was like, ‘Man I think he should be tatted up from the ankles to the ears, he saw a dinosaur attack!’”
Is it too late for Colin to reconsider? Because I’ll start the #GiveLoweryAPonytail hashtag right now.
Look for my full interview with Johnson on Collider closer to the release ofHoopson Netflix.Jurassic World: Dominionis set to be released on August 23, 2025.
