Sam Neill feels right at home reprising hisJurassic Parkrole as Alan Grant in this year’s Jurassic World: Dominion. The film, which hits theaters on Friday, June 10, is reuniting two generations from the Jurassic universe for the first time as Neill returns to the franchise along with Laura Dern, who plays the iconic Dr. Ellie Sattler, and Jeff Goldblum returns as Dr. Ian Malcolm. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard have been holding it down in the recent films, but seeing the original cast members jump right back into their roles is significant for diehard Jurassic Park fans.
Dominion takes place four years after Isla Nublar has been destroyed. In this film, the dinosaurs are now living and hunting alongside humans all over the world. Finding the balance of co-existing with these creatures is key to the humans’ survival and the original team unites with Owen Grady and Claire Dearing to ensure that nothing is out of place. In a recent interview with Neill, he spoke about what it’s like to return to the role nearly three decades after the original.
“Playing Alan Grant is like putting on a pair of old comfortable shoes. They’ve seen better days but they were really comfortable and easy to wear,” the actor told Complex, adding what it was like to reunite with his longtime friends and cast mates from the original films. “It was familiar territory. We’re all used to these enormous animatronic scary dinosaurs. We all know our paths. To be in each other’s company after all this time was great. It was four or five months we were stuck with each others’ company,” he said. “We were lucky to have that time of our lives. We were already friends, we are even firmer friends now.”
In this exclusive clip above, we see Alan and Ellie making their way to Biosyn in a helicopter as they try to wrap their minds around seeing the dinosaurs move around the world freely. The pair have some romantic history, as OG fans know, and Neill told us a bit of what fans can expect from the pair’s reunion in this film. “She’s the great love of his life and the great regret. He let her slip and it was a big mistake,” he says. “When she turns up again, of course, it’s like the sun coming out from behind the clouds for Alan. He’s missed her all these years.”
The pair are there on a mission, and fans will quickly be reminded what a great team they make—as professionals and as partners. “She’s not interested in him. She sees him as an old friend who knows his way around, who has the same core believes. She’s on a mission so what better partner than to rope Alan in on this,” Neill says. “She’s also a single woman at this point. Alan of course, the moment she turns up there’s a spark of hope that this might get romantic again in which case he could not be a happier man.”
He adds: “You need to go see the movie on the big screen to see if he gets lucky.”
Check out this exclusive clip above. Jurassic World Dominion, the third film in the Jurassic World franchise, will roar its way into theaters on Friday, June 10.
