Before trying to survive dinosaurs on the big screen in Jurassic World: Rebirth, Manuel García-Rulfo was just a kid in México, obsessed with dinosaurs. “The first (Jurassic) movie blows my mind,” he says. “I got obsessed with dinosaurs. I had it all.”
For him, Jurassic Park wasn’t just a movie. It cracked open a whole new world. “It opened the doors to cinema. It made me want to do this.” Now, standing in the jungle as part of the main cast of Jurassic World: Rebirth, he still has trouble with the fact that he’s part of this world. “Sometimes I can’t believe it.”
It’s not hard to see why he’s proud. Rebirth isn’t just another fossil of a franchise digging itself up over and over again in the name of nostalgia. It’s a cinematic reset with real emotional stakes. There’s scale, yes, but also something deeper: a reckoning with ambition, legacy, and who you bring into the mission with you.
So naturally, we had to ask: If you were recovering the last strand of dinosaur DNA, which Latine icon — dead or alive — would you want at your side?
Mahershala Ali backed his own Rebirth team and mentioned García-Rulfo as his ultimate sidekick. But Scarlett Johansson didn’t miss a beat with the Latine icon she would choose. “Jennifer Lopez. She’s a badass. And I would love to do something with her. She’s a real force.”
Meanwhile Jonathan Bailey and Rupert Friend, British charm turned chaotic-neutral, took things to another level. “Gloria Estefan,” Bailey offered, completely serious about the Cuban-American singer and actress. “Ultimate conga line distraction strategy.”
“I just said Diego Rivera,” Friend jumped in. Rivera is a Mexican painter and a memorable figure when it comes to 20th-century art. “He’d paint a mural to confuse the raptors and then we go.” The chaos continued when they threw Ricky Martin in for good measure. “He needs a lot of chaperoning,” Friend added, deadpan.
There were deeper cuts too, like Friend mentioning Los Hermanos Gutiérrez. Because if Bridgerton can drop Pitbull, Jurassic deserves a Latin trap beat as someone runs from a genetically modified apex predator.
Beneath all that playfulness, though, is a cast that genuinely cares about depth, not just survival. Johansson calls back to what made the original Jurassic Park iconic. “The characters are so well established and interesting. Like you understand immediately what their personal stakes are and how they relate to one another. That’s what [writer] David Koepp brought back to this script: real heart inside all the chaos.” Ali agrees and adds, “I’ve never got to play a character that was so active and so sort of driven and very clear about his purpose at the moment.”
Bailey approached his role a little differently by mixing old-school reverence with flair. “I just was struck by Jeff Goldblum’s innate machismo charisma. I remember what I wanted to capture, if I could, is Laura Dern and Sam Neill’s sort of intelligence with their appreciation of the natural world and of dinosaurs.”
Friend added, “I’m interested in the moral ambiguity in this film. And I was really delighted to see what David Koepp, our screenwriter, did with my character.” Bailey in turn couldn’t resist building on the joke and adds, “And also, because it’s Rupert, there’s always an innate joy and dry sense of humour and all-round charisma that matches the greats. The macho charisma. The nacho cheese charisma.”
If the characters had emotional layers, the shoot had very real physical ones. “We were deep in the rainforest in Thailand,” Johansson says. “People go there for an afternoon hike. We were there. Hanging out in the water. Cockroaches in your bed.” Ali nods and added, “The elements were against us.”
That kind of grit shows up on screen. But the soul of the film belongs to the cast and how tuned in they are to the culture outside the frame. Jurassic World: Rebirth feels like a movie made for the next generation, one raised on memes and Bad Bunny, nostalgia, and nuance. A generation that knows legacy isn’t just about what you inherit, but what you remix.
And when the jungle closes in and the dinos come running? Maybe Gloria Estefan is the answer. With murals, reggaetón, and the baddest Latina in heels, survival’s just the opening act.
Jurassic World: Rebirth hits theaters July 2, 2025.
