Since co-starring alongside Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick, Glen Powell has quickly become one of the bigger names in Hollywood. Despite the fact he was once kicked out of the VIP party for his own movie because nobody recognized him, he’s a big name now, which means he’s being offered big roles. He was apparently offered a role in the new Jurassic World movie, but he passed on it and Jonathan Bailey should probably send him a fruit basket.
In a new piece for THR, Powell reveals that since Top Gun, he’s been offered several major franchise roles, including a new Bourne Identity movie and a spot in the upcoming Jurassic World film with Scarlett Johansson. Powell says that he loves the Jurassic Park franchise but didn’t think he would add anything to the film. He explained…
Jurassic is one of my favorite movies. It’s one of the things I’ve wanted to do my whole life. I’m not doing that movie because I read the script and I immediately was like, my presence in this movie doesn’t help it. And the script’s great. The movie’s going to fucking kill. It’s not about that. It’s about choosing where you’re going to make an audience happy and where you’re going to make yourself happy.
With the recent announcement that another up-and-coming star, Jonathan Bailey was joining the Jurassic World 4 cast, it seems likely that he’s playing the role that Glen Powell turned down. Bailey’s role in Bridgerton has done for him what Top Gun did for Powell, making him very in demand, so it wouldn’t be a shock if they were both considered for the same part.
It’s interesting that Powell has been offered both Jurassic World and Bourne movies. His biggest role to date was in a Top Gun sequel and this summer he’ll lead the Twisters cast. It seems Hollywood has decided that what Powell needs to do is star in new entries in lots of old franchises.
Powell doesn’t discuss specifically what it was about the Jurassic World role that wasn’t going to make him happy, considering he loves the franchise. In the same interview where he mentioned being thrown out of The Expendables 3 VIP party, he mentioned that Jurassic Park was the movie that made him want to be an actor, so he clearly has love for the franchise.
Beyond the fact that we’re getting another Jurassic film, and the names of several members of the cast, little is known about the movie itself. While it will certainly fit somewhere in the timeline of the previous two trilogies, how that will work is far from clear. Even calling it Jurassic World 4 may be something of a misnomer as it may be no more connected to those films as the Jurassic World movies were to the Jurassic Park trilogy.
Glen Powell in a Jurassic Park movie sounds amazing, but as long as they keep making those films, the chances of seeing it are still possible. Maybe somebody can write a role in the next movie that will make him happy.