The creators of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom are teasing the return of Chris Pratt’s trusty pet velociraptor, Blue.
The new clip dropped on Twitter on Wednesday in the mid-morning, while half the country was home for a snow day. The soundless video shows a few seconds of footage where Blue drops onto an overturned vehicle behind Owen Grady’s back, startling the dinosaur expert. It replays the moment on a loop, presumably meant to be used a gif.
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In 2015’s Jurassic World, Chris Pratt debuted as Owen, the weary velociraptor trainer. Owen had worked hard to establish a tenuous bond with a pack of raptors, who he could guide and almost control with whistles and commands. Spoiler alert: in the course of the film’s events, the bond was tested and even partially broken, and Blue was the only one of Owen’s raptor friends to survive.
In the film’s dramatic climax, Blue aided Owen and the other humans in escaping from the genetically modified monsters terrorizing the park. The raptor even threw Owen a knowing side-eye before stalking off on its own.
Blue is back. @JurassicWorld #FallenKingdom pic.twitter.com/fHcPnDQVGv
— Jurassic World (@JurassicWorld) January 17, 2018
The return of Blue may come as no surprise to some fans. Pratt raised the raptor pack from birth and established himself as their alpha. His “dinosaur-whisperer” status was a major point in the last movie, and it was bound to come back into play.
The director of Jurassic World, Colin Trevorrow, has hinted that the new Jurassic movies will have a more cohesive feel to them than previous parts of the franchise did. Trevorrow returned to co-write and produce Fallen Kingdom, and explained in a recent interview that he and the other creators were planning a trilogy from the outset.
“I feel like that kind of design is crucial to a franchise like this if you really want to bring people along with you and make sure they stay interested,” he said. “It needs to be thought through on that level. It can’t be arbitrary, especially if we want to turn this into a character-based franchise with people who you lean in to follow what they’re going to do.”
It sounds like Trevorrow and his collaborators want Owen Grady to be someone that audiences can “lean in to follow,” which means that his relationship with Blue will remain at the forefront of the story.
The new addition to the Jurassic franchise is due out in theaters on June 22, and fans are already clamoring for this next installment. The trailer promises a volcanic cataclysm that endangers all life on the island — something viscerally familiar to the genetically engineered dinosaur population.