‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ new score references iconic ‘Jurassic Park’ music

Like life itself, the creative minds behind Jurassic World Rebirth found a way to evolve as legendary composer Michael Giacchino exits his three-film streak with the franchise.

Ahead of the new film’s theatrical bow on July 2, Entertainment Weekly can exclusively reveal that two-time Oscar-winner Alexandre Desplat is stepping in to compose the fourth Jurassic World movie’s score.

“Every score John Williams has written has become an iconic score, so it’s quite a daunting task,” Desplat tells EW of carrying the legacy he and Giacchino inherited from Williams, who composed the 1993 Jurassic Park film’s instantly recognizable theme.

“At first, you’re excited, then panic comes along because you realize that you’re taking over from a fabulous composer who invented so many great things that the whole planet knows. You try to find your way through that,” adds the musician, who previously composed the scores for The Shape of Water and the Harry Potter films.

Desplat explains that he wanted to incorporate “quotes of John’s music” to honor his contributions, while also forging a new path for his material within the context of director Gareth Edwards’ story in Rebirth.

The film picks up after the events of 2022’s Jurassic World Dominion, with operations expert Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) leading an extraction team (Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey) to a forbidden, dinosaur-inhabited island at the request of a pharmaceutical company. While there, they cross paths with the shipwrecked Delgado family, who survived an attack by ocean-dwelling dinos.

Desplat found himself balancing “how and where” he could “inject some of [Williams’] theme as a reminder” in the new story, using a “mainly orchestral” score with help from a 105-piece orchestra and a 60-piece choir. “You try to make it your own, and at the same time, pay homage to Williams’ music, and try to find your own way through that by inventing new themes and ideas, but staying in the same artistic zone as the scores of the franchise.”

Desplat also sees the film’s music as separated into specific sections. “It’s the emotional aspect, which is divided into two stories: this group of people looking for the dinosaurs, and another group of people, which is a family. There are two themes and melodies that belong to these two groups,” he explains. “The other aspect is all the action!”

In a statement to EW, Edwards praises Desplat’s approach.

“Like the epic dinosaurs in our film, Alexandre is the last of his kind, a rare species with the talent and knowledge to orchestrate his own classical scores,” he says. “If studios could clone him, they would. Until science finds a way, I’ll happily settle for those goosebump-inducing memories of hearing his music at Abbey Road as he conducted a one-hundred-piece orchestra for our ‘little’ Jurassic movie. Chills.”

While Desplat says he’s long been inspired by Williams, particularly by his Star Wars score, he didn’t consult the composer before joining the project.

“John Williams is a very iconic composer that you don’t call on the telephone every morning to ask his opinion about what the heck you’re doing. So, I would never have dared asking him anything,” Desplat says, laughing. “I have too much respect for him. I’m much too humbled to think he’d have an answer to me. I tried to be as good as I can be.”

He hopes his work will resonate with Steven Spielberg, who directed the ’93 original and executive produced Rebirth, written by returning screenwriter David Koepp.

“I hope that when he hears the score, he’ll be happy, and that I won’t be embarrassing the franchise with what I wrote,” Desplat says, joking that he, too, might one day become extinct when it comes to the Jurassic franchise. “John Williams’ wings are flying above us, so I do hope Spielberg enjoys the score. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll be fired! You never know.”

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Watch Desplat conduct the Jurassic World Rebirth orchestra in EW’s exclusive preview video at the top of this post before the film releases July 2 in theaters.