Jurassic World Rebirth may mark the seventh entry in the Jurassic franchise, but Steven Spielberg is still hands on, 32 years after his original film.

At the movies New York premiere on Monday, Rebirth director Gareth Edwards noted that when it came to working with the famed filmmaker who holds an executive producer credit on the newest flick Steven was very involved in the film. He developed the whole storyline with [writer] David [Koepp] and basically had major input, as much as me, as it started.

And then, as filming began, Edwards recalled, there was a certain point where he felt hed set it all up really nicely and he was like Gareth, go make your movie, its over to you now. A lot of pressure when someone like him gives you that freedom because hes the reason Im a film director. Rebirth, which stars Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey and Mahershala Ali, is set five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion and follows an extraction team racing to the most dangerous place on Earth an island research facility for the original Jurassic Park.

Director Gareth Edwards shares the pressure he felt bringing #JurassicWorldRebirth together, knowing Steven Spielberg was watching pic.twitter.com/ymTGSURhSw

The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) June 23, 2025 It was weird shooting a movie knowing that Steven Spielberg is watching everything youre doing, its quite intimidating, Edwards continued. And then one day youd get a text that would say something nice about the dailies from yesterday or something and youd have so much relief and youd share it with the cast and everyone would be high-fiving each other and hugging and wed carry on.

Co-star Rupert Friend added of the new film, I think this is in many ways a return tonally to the first movie. Its very much a love letter to Spielberg. We shot in 35 mm and Gareth, our director, has referenced pretty much every film Spielberg ever did, has done.

At the premiere, #JurassicWorldRebirths Rupert Friend shares what the film brings to the franchise: A love letter to Spielberg pic.twitter.com/ETfFOmXoef

The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) June 23, 2025 Jurassic World Rebirth hits theaters July 2.

Hilary Lewis contributed to this report.