Jurassic World: Chaos Theory Producers On Darker, More Mature New Story After Camp Cretaceous

The Nublar Six from Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous return in a new Netflix series, Jurassic World: Chaos Theory. As a sequel to Camp Cretaceous, Chaos Theory follows the same core group of characters several years after the events of Jurassic World. Now college-aged young adults, the Camp Fam, as they affectionately call themselves, are brought back together when the tragic death of one of their own is revealed to be part of a greater conspiracy that could threaten all of their lives.

While still a show aimed at children (as its TV-Y7 rating attests), Jurassic World: Chaos Theory is decidedly more grown-up than its predecessor, with more adult themes and a slightly harsher edge to its dino-action. Set in the post-Fallen Kingdom status quo of dinosaurs and humans living together, Chaos Theory gets a lot of mileage out of exploring a world in which dinosaur sightings and attacks are part of everyday life, as are capitalistic grifters who exploit these wild creatures in pursuit of the almighty dollar.

Screen Rant interviewed showrunners Scott Kreamer and Aaron Hammersley in anticipation of the series’ May 24 debut on Netflix. They talk about following in the wake of Camp Cretaceous, working alongside Colin Trevorrow, and setting the stage for the unknown future of the Jurassic franchise. While Jurassic World: Dominion marked the end of an era for the franchise, projects like Chaos Theory prove that there are still plenty of stories to tell within the ever-expanding Jurassic World.

Showrunners Scott Kreamer & Aaron Hammersley On The Darker Tone Of Jurassic World: Chaos Theory

Screen Rant: I’ve been a Jurassic Park fan since I was a boy, and this show is fantastic, so thank you for that, first and foremost!

Scott Kreamer: You’re very welcome!

We’ve seen teases, in Fallen Kingdom and Dominion and the Battle at Big Rock, but I feel like this is the first real Jurassic story that’s about the world of Dinosaurs and humans and their attempts to coexist. Tell us a little bit about exploring the new status quo that the whole Jurassic World trilogy kind of led to.

Scott Kreamer: That’s kind of one of the fun things about this, just kind of imagining what it would really be like, you know? Whether it’s convoys of trapped dinosaurs going down the freeway like the circus coming to town, or an ambulance chasing lawyer radio ad because everybody wants to make a buck off dinosaurs… It’s a lot of fun to be able to tell that more personal story about how things might look in a world where dinosaurs, ya know, might be outside! Look, I live in the suburbs, and I get coyotes walking down our sidewalk every night. It’s not too difficult to extrapolate onto what it would be like if dinosaurs were around.

Aaron Hammersley: For me, that was definitely one of the more fun explorations for this show. All the ways that they would interact, all the different issues and challenges that would come up. And also, how people would try to capitalize on this and whatnot. I remember writing a thing in the second episode, Ben talking about how a freshman in his college, a Pteranodon swooped down and stole her backpack. Things like that are kinda fun to play with.

“A dinosaur literally ate my homework!”

Aaron Hammersley: Yeah! As well as, like, somebody taking advantage of these dinosaurs being out, and capturing them, and using them to have a Tiger King-esque park, you know? Things of that nature felt like… It was us exploring how these interactions would happen and how people would capitalize.

I love the way the show gets into that and explores the reality of that. Even though these creatures are monsters of varying degree, depending on which side of Jurassic Park 3 you like to look at it, they’re still alive.

Aaron Hammersley: Yeah, they’re still just wild animals.

Scott Kreamer: Exactly. We always, whether it’s acting-wise or story-wise, we very much want to portray them as wild animals, even if you’ve been traumatized by dinosaurs and they’re now eating you, they probably seem to be a monster.

Working With Jurassic World Master Colin Trevorrow

How closely are Spielberg and Trevorrow involved in the show? Do they look at the scripts and give you an approving nod? Or do you get to bounce ideas with them?

Scott Kreamer: Not so much with Stephen, because he’s got a lot going on. But Colin’s involved with this, like with Camp Cretaceous. When we sat down to start this one, Colin was very involved. When we started breaking out, just like on Camp Cretaceous. When we started figuring out the basic broad strokes of what the season’s going to be, Colin’s in the writers’ room for at least a day or two every time.

He looks at the scripts, he looks at the designs, he’s just been an amazing creative partner to have. Early days, when Dominion wasn’t even out, or even at the end of Camp Cretaceous, when he was writing Dominion, he’s always been very forthcoming, very generous with information and everything like that. I remember, he was in our writer’s room in Camp Cretaceous and he was excited, because that night, he was going to announce to the world that Sam Neil, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum were going to be in Dominion. At that point, he was already giving us tidbits about what was going to be in Dominion. So yeah, he’s very involved and we’re very lucky to have him!

Nice. I get the sense that he really likes the idea of expanding the Jurassic World, uh, world in that way.

Scott Kreamer: When he’s in the room, he’s another creative voice. The guy’s a creator, he’s a writer, a filmmaker, and it’s great having him involved.

Aaron Hammersley: I think he also liked the fact that, because this was episodic, we were telling stories at a slower pace, and you could kind of dive into more of these subtle ideas. With the films, you have to move at a breakneck pace. I think he enjoyed what we were able to pull off with telling this story.

We’ve got the Nublar Six returning. Well, mostly. RIP Brooklyn. Before settling in on the idea of these characters as young adults in the present day, the Dominion era, that period, was there ever a thought to go in a different direction with new characters or a different time in the Jurassic universe, or was it always going to be the Camp Fam?

Scott Kreamer: There were a bunch of ideas towards the end of Camp Cretaceous. Aaron and I, and the whole team, we felt really good about the story we told with Camp Cretaceous. So this sort of idea just came out of the blue, it just kind of struck me, and then I ran it past Aaron, and then our head writer, Bethany Armstrong Johnson, and we just started fleshing out what the thing could be. That was the idea.

It wasn’t designed on “how do we capitalize?” or this and that. It’s just, like, “Well, this would be a cool story, a cool genre. We already love these characters. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see them at a different point in their lives?” Things are uncertain at that age anyway, but then you throw on more kinds of uncertainty on top of it, and it just kind of took off from there.

Jurassic World: Chaos Theory Is A Little More Grown-Up

I’m thinking about how the characters are a little bit more grown-up. The peril is a little bit more real. There’s a little bit more blood. When people get eaten, they’re still conveniently behind a bush, but do you ever bump up against standards and practices? Do you have to reanimate some of the death scenes? Or do you know the rules by now?

Aaron Hammersley: We play with the editing a lot. The standard for this is, we do have to be aware of how much we’re showing. We’re very intentional about all of that. When things are… We’ve definitely had scenes where we’re like, oh wow, this is intense. So we’ll strategically cut away for a moment and then come back when it comes back down to an appropriate level.

Scott Kreamer: We definitely wanted to push it more, this time. But still, there are younger children that watch this, so like Aaron said… We’ve had to reanimate a couple of things that came out a little too intense, but normally, whether it’s music or sound effects or editing, we have a pretty good idea where the line is. We definitely go across it sometimes, but there’s people there to…

Aaron Hammersley: Sometimes we intentionally cross it so that other people can pull us back.

Scott Kreamer: We’ve already started talking.about… Once the dinosaurs attack Darius’s retirement community, at that point, maybe we’ve gone too far with it.

The animation and lighting and camerawork have really evolved since the early days of Camp Cretaceous. Has the pipeline evolved, have the artists become more skilled, or are you more bold in what you ask of them? How has the technology evolved alongside your storytelling?

Aaron Hammersley: I think Scott’s pitch up front was a political thriller. Everything is sort of built around that. So, you know, with the original Camp Cretaceous, the tone of that was more adventure, and the tone skewed younger. So all the visuals were obviously going to support that. But with this one, we were going for something a little darker, a little more aged up.

I don’t think it was necessarily that things changed with the pipeline. It’s more that we set up our trajectory towards this sort of tone, and then everybody that was on the art side, like our art director and lighting and comp supervisor, they really honed in on that and found a ton of great reference from all sorts of different films to establish the atmosphere and look. That’s sort of how it was built out.

These kids, the characters, they’re so iconic and beloved, especially for the younger viewers. They’re just as iconic as Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler. Would you ever like to bring them into live action? If you were given the opportunity, would you want to make a live-action movie with these characters?

Scott Kreamer: Yeah! Well, I don’t see why not. We love them, too! You know, like Aaron was saying, we’re lucky that we get hours and hours with these characters. In the movies, you only get two hours, or two-and-a-half hours. That’s how it is. I don’t think we’d ever say no to putting them in a live action film, but I don’t think it’s anything that anyone is trying to do, currently.

Where The Jurassic Park Franchise Goes From Here

Tell me a little bit about being at the forefront of whatever’s next. Do you consider Chaos Theory to be the epilogue to the “World” chapter of the Jurassic story, or do see it as connective tissue to whatever happens next, with all the rumors and stories about Jurassic Park 7?

Scott Kreamer: This was definitely approached with Dominion in mind, but then things got moved back because of the pandemic and everything. I don’t think we set out to do that. All of a sudden, at the very beginning, when there were a lot more people involved in approving ideas and stories, it was like, “Oh, we kind of are what’s next!” We just approached this from the angle of just telling this story with these characters that we love. So, that wasn’t sort of what we had in mind, but we’re pretty excited just to be part of the franchise and to have what’s feeling more and more like an important part of the franchise! Feeling grateful to be part of it.

Aaron Hammersley: There was conversation at one point, and I don’t remember who said it, but it sort of dawned on us that we were setting the trajectory. Given the fact that Dominion was the last film and it had come out, and now our show is the next thing. It’s treated as part of the canon of this story, and we were like, “Oh boy.”

Scott Kreamer: No pressure!

Aaron Hammersley: But what’s cool about that is we also tonally shifted. This show does not sit in the same pocket as all of the other films. It sort of sits in its own space. We took it down a new path, which was kind of fun.

Do you have a roadmap for the next four or five seasons for the whole story, or do you play it year by year, or do you play it by ear? Are you prepared to have conversations with whoever is doing the next movies, to be like, “How can we tie in, or how can we have our own space to tell our story while you do the next Jurassic movie?”

Scott Kreamer: We have a plan. We know where we see this show, this story going. And we’ll talk to anyone who will talk to us! We serve at the pleasure of the franchise. We definitely have a story in mind, and hopefully it will be something that we’ll get to tell, and that the folks will like.

About Jurassic World: Chaos Theory

Set six years after the events at Camp Cretaceous, members of “The Nublar Six” are struggling to find their footing off the islands, navigating a world now filled with dinosaurs and people who want to hurt them. Reunited in the wake of a tragedy, the group comes together only to find themselves on the run and catapulted into a global adventure to unravel a conspiracy that threatens dinosaurs and humankind alike and finally learn the truth about what happened to one of their own.

Jurassic World: Chaos Theory

Jurassic World: Chaos Theory is a CG animated action-adventure series from Dreamworks Animation. The series is set after the events of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous and follows protagonist Darius Bowman, who visits the infamous camp as the dinosaurs escape and wreak havoc.