When it appeared that the Jurassic World franchise was starting to die down quality-wise (looking at you Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), DreamWorks in partnership with Netflix, launched the animated show Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, which focused on a group of children who were in a pilot program for a “summer camp” on Isla Nublar during the events of the first Jurassic World movie, just when the dinosaurs break free and all hell breaks loose on the island. The children are accidentally left behind on the island to fend for themselves. Over the next 5 seasons, the kids go through various stages of survival, friendships, and relationships until they finally make it to the mainland.
But their story didn’t end. DreamWorks and Netflix aren’t stupid and realized they had a hit on their hands, and in concert with the ending of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Jurassic World: Dominion (where the dinosaurs have left the island and are on the mainland as well), the adventures of the young children continued in the spin-off series, Jurassic World: Chaos Theory. Taking place 6 years after the events of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, the children (now young adults) are now celebrities titled “The Nublar Six” who band together after one of their own members has been killed in what appears to be a random dinosaur attack, but soon discover a conspiracy of dinosaur traffickers selling dinosaurs to the highest bidder, and they are willing to kill to keep it a secret. At the end of the first season, the children discover a conspiracy to traffic dinosaurs to parts unknown and they decide to stow away on the cargo ship to search for the mysterious “Broker” and stop them. Unknown to them, Brooklynn (Kiersten Kelly) who was assumed to have been killed is actually still alive and continuing to try and unravel the conspiracy on her own in the shadows.
Season Two of Jurassic World: Chaos Theory continues as the Nublar Six are now stowaways on a dinosaur cargo ship sailing away from America with no idea where they are headed. While they are on the boat, they are still clueless that Brooklynn is still alive. Throughout the season we get to see how Brooklynn survived her dinosaur encounter. One interesting component of learning about her is that it wasn’t the dangerous Allosaur that “killed” her, but instead highly trained Raptors that were the real ones who attacked her. The notion of training and controlling dinosaurs is one of the plot points throughout the second season of Jurassic World: Chaos Theory as evil organizations will always try and weaponize the dinosaurs, a theme first introduced in the first Jurassic World movie.
Each of the “Camp Fam” in Jurassic World: Chaos Theory is going through their own changes in the second season of the show. The most noticeable is Kenji (Darren Barnet) who had to witness his father’s death at the hands of some highly trained Raptors in the first season. As a result, Kenji is turning into somewhat of a loose cannon. He’s reckless and eager to fact murderous carnivores head-on, to the point that Darius (Paul-Mikél Williams), Ben (Sean Giambrone), Yaz (Kausar Mohammed), and Sammy (Raini Rodriguez) start expressing concern for his behavior and check him a few times for his unnecessary bravery when they face off against some meat eaters.
While the main five are on a boat trying to discover who’s trafficking dinosaurs, Brooklynn is operating in the shadows trying to uncover the details herself. Ditching her social media influencer status from the first series, Brooklynn continues to be an investigative journalist and uncovers who the mysterious “Broker” is. Although she’s now missing an arm, her resolve is strong, and she goes undercover. First with an anarchist organization called “Dinosaur Liberation Now” and then to Dubai to try and uncover what’s really going on.
The Camp Fam’s ship finally lands and is in Senegal, showcasing that the dinosaurs are not only loose in America, but it’s a global phenomenon. There, the kids meet Zayna (Anaiya Amira) a young girl who lives in a rural area in Senegal with her mother. As the kids come across her home, they quickly become friends, to the point that Zayna joins them in the quest to try and uncover what’s going on with the dinosaurs in her area as some are being kidnapped by a mysterious organization, including Zayna’s pet Gallimimus, which replaced our favorite Ankylosaur “Bumpy” as the new “pet dinosaur” for the children. Zayna is a welcome addition to the crew as she is younger and the same age the kids were during the first animated series, even Darius tries to serve as her mentor, except she’s just as big a dino-nerd as he is and has to remind him that she’s not some little kid and is just as resourceful as they are as they navigate a dinosaur (and lion and hippo) filled African region with her assistance.
As much as we love the kids in Jurassic World: Chaos Theory, we also are here for the dinosaurs. One thing about each season of the animated series (both the original and the spin-off), the series continues to introduce new dinosaurs as a threat to the audience. This season introduces a Suchomimus (a crocodile-snouted semi-aquatic dinosaur that proves to be a threat) as well as a Majungasaurus which serves to be the big bad scary dino that stalks the kids. Oh, once again, the kids do have plot armor as they could have died a dozen times from the threatening animals, but they manage to luck out in interesting ways. Towards the end of the second season of Jurassic World: Chaos Theory the audience is introduced to a genetically created dinosaur that while blind, has almost Daredevil-like hearing and smelling abilities that prove to be terrifying for the kids, especially when they are hunted in a pitch-black secret base/lab.
Most of the kids go through their own character arcs: Yaz and Sammy continue to be couple goals as they ride or die for each other when one is in danger, Darius struggles with his feelings for Brooklynn, Kenji struggles with his PTSD, and Ben struggles to tell the rest of the crew that Brooklynn is still alive when he finds out early. However, Brooklynn has the most interesting character arc in Jurassic World: Chaos Theory as she has to sacrifice who she is in the name of getting to the truth. There are a few moments in the second season where she makes choices that seem to betray her friends, and you see the conflict in her when doing so, which leads to a great cliffhanger setup for season three.
Netflix and DreamWorks once again showcase that the Jurassic Park franchise is nowhere near extinct. While the last two films weren’t as well received as one would hope, the series continues to impress as it gives us just the right amount of dino goodies as well as characters we have grown attached to as they navigate through their adolescence into adulthood in a world full of dinosaurs. The series has grown up with these kids as it’s more mature and darker, yet still is accessible for kids of all ages. With the new Jurassic World Rebirth film on the way, expect more seasons of Jurassic World: Chaos Theory to incorporate events from that film into the larger (and more complex) storytelling of the Jurassic Park franchise for years to come.
Jurassic World: Chaos Theory is now playing on Netflix.
