Daniella Pineda cast in ‘Jurassic World 2’ as other ‘female lead role’
Universal Pictures & Amblin Entertainment’s sequel to their Jurassic World blockbuster added another cast member as production has been set for the Spring. The Originals and The Vampire Diaries star Daniella Pineda has been cast for Jurassic World 2, according to a new report from Variety.
Described as a “key role” and “one of the new female lead roles” by Variety, Pineda joins Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol.2, Passengers) and Bryce Dallas Howard (Black Mirror, Pete’s Dragon) who both reprise their roles as Owen and Claire from the record-breaking 2015 film. B.D. Wong (Gotham, original Jurassic Park film) will also return as the geneticist Dr. Henry Wu.
Other newcomers currently consist of Toby Jones (Captain America: The First Avenger, season 4 of Sherlock), Rafe Spall (Prometheus, Life of Pi), and Justice Smith (The Get Down), as well as the director: J.A. Bayona.
Bayona will take over for director Colin Trevorrow, who will be moving on to helm Star Wars 9 and function as a writer with Derek Connolly.
Production has been slated to begin this Spring in England.
In addition to her role as Sophie Deveraux in the Vampire Diaries universe, she starred in The Detour as Vanessa, High Maintenance as Phaedra and American Odyssey as Ruby Simms.
So few details are known about the film, but here’s the remarks from Bayona promising something bigger and better.
“I think what is tricky about doing the fifth movie of a franchise is how will you bring in new stuff and still pay tribute to what we all know and the legacy of the film. So, it’s the balance between the new stuff and the old stuff. I think Colin did a great job in the first one finding the balance between what people are expecting and what people are being again.”
Even Bayona was shocked by the direction of the franchise: “I was kind of surprised when he pitched me the story because it leads the story to a place that we’ve never seen before and it brings some of the most important elements from the other films and makes something with them. I thought that was very interesting. It’s the second chapter of a trilogy so it gets the story to a place that wants you leaving more and more.”
Bryce-Howard confirms the trauma changed her character, Claire, and that’s part of this story: “She definitely went through a lot and is permanently changed because of that. But she is also who she is. Chris [Pratt] and I are already having a lot of fun with that. We’re in that stage right now of figuring out the backstory and talking through all those beats, like everything that happened in between. That’s always such a fun time. You’re like, ‘No, she did that?! No way, he couldn’t have!’ It’s really, really fun, and then you step into the present moment and it becomes alive.”
There is no official title change as the project is just being called Jurassic World 2 with a release in theaters set for June 22, 2018.
