Angsty teens, nefarious scientists, and dangerous dinosaurs — it’s business “unusual” on Season 3 of the DreamWorks animated hit series Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous. While it’s normally hard being a teenage “Dino Nerd” in a world of kids who don’t understand you, that all changes when you’re trapped on an island filled with dinos. All of a sudden, your skill sets become indispensable, and those skills come to life thanks to the talented young cast voicing these characters.
And from the start of this season’s ten all-new episodes, premiering on Netflix May 21, the stakes have never been higher.
What Could Go Wrong?
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Man creates dinosaurs, dinosaurs eat everyone, man realizes he shouldn’t play God but tries again (and again) because next time, he thinks it will be different. While that’s the premise of this series and the Jurassic Park/Jurassic World movies, Camp Cretaceous takes the concept of pitting man against nature to a new level by pitting unnatural science experiments against rule-averse teens.
The series follows a diverse group of six young adults trapped at a new adventure camp on Isla Nublar — you know, the same island where an on-site genetics lab is whipping up a whole new batch of prehistoric terror. While dinosaurs are unleashed across the island, the group struggles to survive, becoming friends and then a family in the process. Think Breakfast Club meets Survivor, if the goal was “don’t get eaten.”
The series takes place between the events of Jurassic World and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. In this latest season, our motley crew struggles to survive a deadly new threat, and as mysteries unfold and conspiracies are laid bare, it becomes evident that the most dangerous elements on the island don’t always have jaws or claws.
Friends First
Each of our young heroes have experienced trauma prior to arriving on Isla Nublar; it’s hard enough to process and heal those wounds when you’re being chased by dinosaurs. By season three, each teen has developed a set of complementary survival skills that help the team problem solve and collaborate. These character arcs have played out nicely across each season, and the camaraderie has spilled into their everyday lives.
“Everybody definitely has a little bit of their characters in themselves, for sure. For the most part, I’m sort of like the motherly type in the group,” Raini Rodriguez, who voices the gregarious and enthusiastic Sammy Gutierre, tells Parentoogy. “I started a group text and put everybody in a group chat together. We try to wish everybody happy birthdays. We’re very lucky to have this amazing cast. We love each other so much. We’re so lucky.”
For Paul-Mikél Williams, who voices dinosaur expert and group leader, Darius, the process has highlighted the importance of character development, on and off-screen.
“The range of the characters is phenomenal in this season,” he tells Parentology. “We get to see the characters really reflect on past events and connect on a bunch of different levels. It really reminded me that no matter how much you know a person, you’re always going to keep learning about them. That’s what I love about this season. It connects us on a lot of levels.”
Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous Season 3 Plot
Still stranded on the island, the group uncovers more details of Dr. Wu’s secret research, and must quickly take fate into their own hands with a dangerous plan to leave Isla Nublar behind for good. But when a tropical storm delays their departure, a lethal new threat quickly closes in on the campers, placing their escape, and their lives, in great danger.
Williams and Rodriguez were understandably tight-lipped about the young heroes’ upcoming adventures, but both told Parentology that season three is about more than escaping the island in one piece — it’s about exploring the characters’ growth, working as a team, and becoming both self-reliant and reliant on each other.
“You’re going to see a lot of fun dynamics between the characters. At the end of the day, these are six kids that are in the jungle by themselves, you know, and they have to band together to survive,” says Rodriguez. “Of course, we also get to reveal some never-before-seen threats on the island, which I think is really special. We get to fill in the blanks for you guys in between what happened between Jurassic World and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. To introduce new threats, new things about the Island, new adventures is really exciting and I’m super happy that fans get to see it this season.”
About Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous Season 3 Cast & Crew
Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous season 3 cast includes Paul-Mikél Williams as “Darius,” Jenna Ortega as “Brooklynn,” Ryan Potter as “Kenji,” Raini Rodriguez as “Sammy,” Sean Giambrone as “Ben” and Kausar Mohammed as “Yaz.”
The show is from DreamWorks Animation, Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment. The series is executive produced by Steven Spielberg, Colin Trevorrow, and Frank Marshall, with executive producers and showrunners Scott Kreamer and Aaron Hammersley.
Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous season 3 debuts on May 21 on Netflix.