I had a feeling Jurassic World was going to be a huge hit, but never in my wildest dreams did I suspect it would surpass The Avengers to become the third highest-grossing movie of all time worldwide. $1.522 billion in global office? Amazing.

What doesn’t surprise me is that Universal Pictures has not only announced a sequel to World today, but they have also given it a release date of June 22, 2018. Colin Trevorrow, the indie filmmaker who brought a little life to the moribund franchise as World‘s director, will co-write the script with Derek Connolly. Together they wrote both the recent dino-tastic blockbuster and Trevorrow’s 2012 feature directorial debut, Safety Not Guaranteed.

At the moment Trevorrow doesn’t appear to be interested in directing the sequel; he’s been rumored to take the helm of Star Wars Episode IX for Disney and Lucasfilm. If that gig falls through, he might be up for another round of genetically altered dinosaur mayhem.

Chris Pratt, who was already committed to sequels, will be back as fearless raptor trainer Owen Grady, as will his co-star Bryce Dallas Howard.

Jurassic World wasn’t a great film overall, but I had a lot of fun watching it on the big screen with my best friend Sarah. It came the closest to recapturing the magic of the Steven Spielberg-directed original. Three years is plenty of time to do a follow-up the proper creative justice. Let’s hope it’s even better than its predecessor.

I hope they go even bigger this time. How about Jurassic Universe? Wouldn’t you like to see Pratt leading a charge of raptors against an army of invading aliens? Zero gravity dinosaur attacks! A T-Rex on Mars! That would get my twenty bucks – assuming that will be the price of a ticket for an evening show by then, and it probably will – very easily.

Coming your way in 2D, 3D, IMAX 3D, and whatever other technological advancements in big screen excitement have been created by then, Jurassic World 2 (title subject to inevitable change) will arrive in theaters on June 22, 2018.

[Source: Variety]