Steven Spielberg Says Colin Trevorrow Will Direct JURASSIC WORLD III

Happy Good Friday y'all! Looks like Jesus isn't the only artist to rise from the dead this weekend.

While Colin Trevorrow smashed box office records for Universal with the first Jurassic World, he left the franchise to try and helm a Star War (though that, as we all know, didn't work out, and J.J. Abrams has stepped in to bring the new trilogy home with Episode IX). However, Trevorrow and writing partner Derek Connolly remained on the follow-up Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom as the sole credited authors of the screenplay, with J.A. Bayona (A Monster Calls) fitting his booty for the director's chair. 

Well, Trevorrow wants that seat back, and Executive Producer Steven Spielberg - who's remained with the series as a "Godfather" of sorts - just confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that he's returning. ***Extreme Kanye West Voice***: "Trevorrow walks!"

Now, while this may come as a surprise of sorts for some fans of the franchise, it actually fits with a pattern found in the original three films (of which Spielberg helmed two, before passing it off to Joe Johnston for Jurassic Park III). Only here, Bayona breaks it up in the middle. Plus, as Collider points out, Trevorrow has always been an architect for this new JP kingdom, mapping out a three movie arc with Connolly from the start: 

"I knew where I wanted it to go. I remember telling Steven [Spielberg] even while we were still making the first movie, 'This is the beginning. Here is the middle. And here’s the end of the end. This is where we want to go.' 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. 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.

At the end of this movie, it’s not a cliffhanger, but it’s designed for people who want to know what’s going to happen next, whereas the earlier Jurassic Park movies had pretty clear definitive endings. They were pretty much episodic. In working with Derek Connolly, my co-writer, we were also thinking about where it was going to go in the future.”

So, how do you folks feel about this? Excited to see Bayona's vision for the first sequel? Intrigued by Spielberg's choice for Trevorrow to bring this new set of dino films home? Sound off in them there comments below.