Jurassic World: Dominion is officially done with filming. Universal and director Colin Trevorrow relaunched the Jurassic franchise in 2015 to great success, and he returned to helm the ending of the Jurassic World trilogy. Even though fans were divided on Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, there is plenty of excitement for the new film. Jurassic World 3 will bring back several characters from the franchise’s past, including Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), and Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum).
All of the interest in Jurassic World: Dominion didn’t make production any easier, though, as filming was greatly affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Filming originally started in February 2020, but that only lasted for a few weeks before COVID-19 shut down productions around the world. It then became the first blockbuster movie to resume filming by following strict safety protocols. The process mostly worked, although there were a few instances of filming having to stop again after positive tests. Jurassic World 3 was most recently shut down at the beginning of October with just a few weeks of filming remaining.
After all this time, it has finally been announced that Jurassic World: Dominion has wrapped filming. The news was confirmed to Deadline by Trevorrow and Universal. According to the outlet, this comes after over 40,000 COVID-19 tests were administered to the cast and crew on a daily basis and everyone isolating in a production bubble for months. These procedures kept positive tests to a minimum, with only around 100 tests coming back positive, including some that were false positives. Trevorrow had this to say about the film wrapping:
I’m not sure I can put it into words. It has been remarkable. Our crew and our cast has been so resilient. All producers have worked around the clock to make it the best it can be. It has been inspiring.
Jurassic World: Dominion‘s ability to complete production with a relatively small amount of positive cases is the direct result of Universal paying an extra $6-8 million to enforce production guidelines. This money was spent on the materials to allow for daily testing and contract a private medical facility to monitor the production. The studio also helped retrofit Pinewood Studios UK to add 1,800 COVID-related signs, 150 hand sanitizer stations, and 60 extra sinks at the shooting facility. It was previously reported $3M alone was spent on testing, so the additional $3-5M now revealed to be spent must have paid for the rest.
Even though Jurassic World: Dominion is now done filming, it will still be a while before fans get to see the movie. Due to the delays in production and the current state of movie theaters, Universal already pushed Jurassic World 3 back to summer 2022. It was previously set to come out next year and be part of a jam-packed summer season. With over 18 months to go before the film will be released, hopefully this will allow everyone involved with Jurassic World: Dominion to take a well-deserved break after a grueling production.
