WIll we ever get a Jurassic Park TV show that's canon to the movie series? And who's for it?

While there have been quite a bit of Jurassic Park video games that have come out, I find it odd that we will never got a JP tv series yet?

With the time period between JP3 and JW, not to mention those between JP and TLW as well as that of TLW and JP3, there is a lot of untapped storylines that can be made, yet we know that Universal won't make a prequel about any of those. So I really think a TV series, animated preferably, that's canon to the movies can do a lot of good to fill in those gaps.

Your thoughts.

I have certainly voiced my interest and approval of the notion of an animated TV series that bridges the gap between JP3 and JW, but the fact that we so far don't even have a sign or murmurings of even an animated series is a bit disappointing. You can do so much in animation that a TV show would struggle with. The ideal scenario is if an animated show is greenlit, the show staff are dedicated fans of the franchise at large like us, and are able to reconcile the previous trilogy with the new one.

And to be honest, the trouble with live action TV is that you have to get the VFX on the dinosaurs looking consistently good throughout and comparable in some way to the digital dinosaurs of the movies, which would be extremely difficult. Especially since a show's budget starts out fairly modest and gradually builds over time and as ratings get stronger, Game of Thrones being a terrific example. Plus I think that the failure of Terra Nova has probably increased the chances of never seeing a JP series canon to the movies.

BarrytheOnyx wrote:

I have certainly voiced my interest and approval of the notion of an animated TV series that bridges the gap between JP3 and JW, but the fact that we so far don't even have a sign or murmurings of even an animated series is a bit disappointing. You can do so much in animation that a TV show would struggle with. The ideal scenario is if an animated show is greenlit, the show staff are dedicated fans of the franchise at large like us, and are able to reconcile the previous trilogy with the new one.

And to be honest, the trouble with live action TV is that you have to get the VFX on the dinosaurs looking consistently good throughout and comparable in some way to the digital dinosaurs of the movies, which would be extremely difficult. Especially since a show's budget starts out fairly modest and gradually builds over time and as ratings get stronger, Game of Thrones being a terrific example. Plus I think that the failure of Terra Nova has probably increased the chances of never seeing a JP series canon to the movies.

Don't forget about Dinotopia.

Not only that, but an animated show could bring in newer audience members to the series much easier then a live-action series could. Look how well the game LEGO Jurassic World did. You would inevitably have to get some voice actors who aren't into the knowledge of the JP movie series at first, but once they know that basics, it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

So long as they pronounce the names right, I'm in.

i would love to see one

If it's a live action TV series I'm all in...one can dream.

Cartoon
NO

Live action
Maybe, but no as reboot, soft reboot, remake, prequel, re-imaging or any of that crap

Mistral wrote:

Cartoon
NO

Live action
Maybe, but no as reboot, soft reboot, remake, prequel, re-imaging or any of that crap

It's going to be hard NOT to have a JP show without some sort of re-imaging/prequel considering with all the time space between JP3 and JW. Also, as BarryTheOnyx said, it's going to be very difficult to have constantly good SFX in a live action cartoon show. Just because something is a cartoon show doesn't mean that it can't be dark. Just look at the 1990's Batman cartoon series and the animated movie, Mask Of The Phantasm.

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Mistral wrote:

Cartoon
NO

Live action
Maybe, but no as reboot, soft reboot, remake, prequel, re-imaging or any of that crap

It's going to be hard NOT to have a JP show without some sort of re-imaging/prequel considering with all the time space between JP3 and JW. Also, as BarryTheOnyx said, it's going to be very difficult to have constantly good SFX in a live action cartoon show. Just because something is a cartoon show doesn't mean that it can't be dark. Just look at the 1990's Batman cartoon series and the animated movie, Mask Of The Phantasm.

Series can take far, far, far bigger risks than movies can today, one only has to look at the broad spectrum of shows today in comparison to mainstream blockbusters that are mainly playing it safe or have to follow other norms. That's one of the reasons why I very much prefer series over films. Furthermore today series can air purely on streaming services where they don't have to worry so much about ratings, restrictions imposed by the studios or the TV companies.

If there was to be live action JP series, I wouldn't want there to be much CGI anyway. Not only can you still handle much with animatronics today (which even if not operated quite to Stan Winston levels of brilliance would still suffice in TV standards), but even generally, you wouldn't actually have to show the dinosaurs so much anyway. The less the better, sparsely and appropriately used - the animals do not need to be the actual on-screen focus of series to work. They would of course be the framework you fall back to from time to time, but generally, I would want majority of the episodes to concentrate on other things. Characters, the world and philosophy. Just like in many good scifi series like Babylon 5.

I love cartoons, especially modern cartoons, two of my favorite shows ever anywhere are cartoons and both are only few years old (FIM and Gravity Falls). I love many others as well from past. However, I do not like the idea of JP as cartoon, it would only devaluate the product in my eyes. Darker cartoons can and have worked, but I don't see it in JP.

Mistral wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Mistral wrote:

Cartoon
NO

Live action
Maybe, but no as reboot, soft reboot, remake, prequel, re-imaging or any of that crap

It's going to be hard NOT to have a JP show without some sort of re-imaging/prequel considering with all the time space between JP3 and JW. Also, as BarryTheOnyx said, it's going to be very difficult to have constantly good SFX in a live action cartoon show. Just because something is a cartoon show doesn't mean that it can't be dark. Just look at the 1990's Batman cartoon series and the animated movie, Mask Of The Phantasm.

Series can take far, far, far bigger risks than movies can today, one only has to look at the broad spectrum of shows today in comparison to mainstream blockbusters that are mainly playing it safe or have to follow other norms. That's one of the reasons why I very much prefer series over films. Furthermore today series can air purely on streaming services where they don't have to worry so much about ratings, restrictions imposed by the studios or the TV companies.

But isn't having a JP series that's on Amazon or Netflix basically playing it safe if by your own standards? Not only that, but you have the problem of it reaching a smaller audience then you do with the conventional-non cabal or satellite-TV stations.

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Mistral wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Mistral wrote:

Cartoon
NO

Live action
Maybe, but no as reboot, soft reboot, remake, prequel, re-imaging or any of that crap

It's going to be hard NOT to have a JP show without some sort of re-imaging/prequel considering with all the time space between JP3 and JW. Also, as BarryTheOnyx said, it's going to be very difficult to have constantly good SFX in a live action cartoon show. Just because something is a cartoon show doesn't mean that it can't be dark. Just look at the 1990's Batman cartoon series and the animated movie, Mask Of The Phantasm.

Series can take far, far, far bigger risks than movies can today, one only has to look at the broad spectrum of shows today in comparison to mainstream blockbusters that are mainly playing it safe or have to follow other norms. That's one of the reasons why I very much prefer series over films. Furthermore today series can air purely on streaming services where they don't have to worry so much about ratings, restrictions imposed by the studios or the TV companies.

But isn't having a JP series that's on Amazon or Netflix basically playing it safe if by your own standards? Not only that, but you have the problem of it reaching a smaller audience then you do with the conventional-non cabal or satellite-TV stations.

What? Your arguments make no sense to me

Mistral wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Mistral wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Mistral wrote:

Cartoon
NO

Live action
Maybe, but no as reboot, soft reboot, remake, prequel, re-imaging or any of that crap

It's going to be hard NOT to have a JP show without some sort of re-imaging/prequel considering with all the time space between JP3 and JW. Also, as BarryTheOnyx said, it's going to be very difficult to have constantly good SFX in a live action cartoon show. Just because something is a cartoon show doesn't mean that it can't be dark. Just look at the 1990's Batman cartoon series and the animated movie, Mask Of The Phantasm.

Series can take far, far, far bigger risks than movies can today, one only has to look at the broad spectrum of shows today in comparison to mainstream blockbusters that are mainly playing it safe or have to follow other norms. That's one of the reasons why I very much prefer series over films. Furthermore today series can air purely on streaming services where they don't have to worry so much about ratings, restrictions imposed by the studios or the TV companies.

But isn't having a JP series that's on Amazon or Netflix basically playing it safe if by your own standards? Not only that, but you have the problem of it reaching a smaller audience then you do with the conventional-non cabal or satellite-TV stations.

What? Your arguments make no sense to me

You say that series can take far bigger risks then movies. Well if they make a series that runs on Netflix then that would be playing it safe since many people won't be able to see it as they would if they were to see it on conventional television stations. In other words, the more limited the audience, the smaller the chances of people caring about blunders/mistakes being made. It came out the wrong way at first.

Would NBC be willing to invest Game of Thrones levels of money into a Jurassic Park/World series that works in tandem with the movies? Being owned by Comcast keeps the franchise under the same roof, but NBC has yet to invest in anything of comparable levels of strong visuals, locations and casting to be compared to an HBO series. There is the Emerald City show from NBC, but based on the reception to that show... it's not encouraging. Plus it just looked dodgy from the outset.

Netflix and Amazon handle smaller productions on tighter budgets that tend to be more character focused and grounded. Really, we don't get a lot of impressive effects sequences in any of the Marvel Netflix series, and generally one of the few genuinely weak aspects of Stranger Things was:

Strange Things finale:

There is certainly merit in taking a more restrained approach to the dinosaurs in a live action TV setting for the smaller carnivores, but large herbivores and carnivores would end up appearing in more limited capacity and seldom to the standards of Stan Winston's animatronics or ILM's CGI.

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Mistral wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Mistral wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Mistral wrote:

Cartoon
NO

Live action
Maybe, but no as reboot, soft reboot, remake, prequel, re-imaging or any of that crap

It's going to be hard NOT to have a JP show without some sort of re-imaging/prequel considering with all the time space between JP3 and JW. Also, as BarryTheOnyx said, it's going to be very difficult to have constantly good SFX in a live action cartoon show. Just because something is a cartoon show doesn't mean that it can't be dark. Just look at the 1990's Batman cartoon series and the animated movie, Mask Of The Phantasm.

Series can take far, far, far bigger risks than movies can today, one only has to look at the broad spectrum of shows today in comparison to mainstream blockbusters that are mainly playing it safe or have to follow other norms. That's one of the reasons why I very much prefer series over films. Furthermore today series can air purely on streaming services where they don't have to worry so much about ratings, restrictions imposed by the studios or the TV companies.

But isn't having a JP series that's on Amazon or Netflix basically playing it safe if by your own standards? Not only that, but you have the problem of it reaching a smaller audience then you do with the conventional-non cabal or satellite-TV stations.

What? Your arguments make no sense to me

You say that series can take far bigger risks then movies. Well if they make a series that runs on Netflix then that would be playing it safe since many people won't be able to see it as they would if they were to see it on conventional television stations. In other words, the more limited the audience, the smaller the chances of people caring about blunders/mistakes being made. It came out the wrong way at first.

I don't see how the possible audience is going to be automatically smaller if it aired on Netflix rather than traditional American outlet like FOX or wherever. Not to mention cable TV. Netflix has global reach not just to US and the subscription rates are going all the way. And if "Stranger Things" that popped out of nowhere can become a pop sensation in a heartbeat, then JP's already existing marketing power would only help.

But the actual argument you're saying, I still don't get it. Unless someone is directly wanting to make a cash crab and doesn't care in the first place, no-one goes into productions thinking 'hey let's try to aim for that smaller network so we that we can do whatever we want and people won't bitch about the lack of quality so much". Now they may go to alternative places to get rid of the "restrictions" I talked about earlier, or if they just can't get into the big networks, but I don't see why anyone would want to hide their potential shortcoming by going to smaller station and having smaller reach on purpose.

Which again I don't think is the case with Netflix anyway. The other streaming services, well okay they might be different deal, but even CBS is putting the new Star Trek on their own streaming service (apart from pilot) which is kind of bold. That instance however is CBS trying to boost up the popularity of the service, and that's the only real reason.

I think the cheapest way to do it would be to have it be set during when Jurassic World was active. That park was running almost 10 years, you could do a lot of stories there.

I think everyone is for it but will we get it? Based on the movie continuity? Never. A live action show? maybe but not for many years, they won't trade their movie dollars for tv show pennies when it comes to profits. Only if it's been years after the film franchise has shown no signs of a future would they attempt this.


Could it happen? I don't see why not, I do think the CG and/or practical effects would be crazy expensive but remember that Terra Nova already tried to do it and that's getting close to a decade ago. Things have only gotten cheaper and Terra Nova handled it fairly well by having interesting stories so it could be done. I'd love to see it especially if it was a Netflix or HBO show, 5 or so episodes per season but well done. It's a dream however.


Now a cartoon would be awesome but right now action cartoons aren't doing that hot so I doubt it would happen. What about the cancelled cartoons from the 90s? I think they would've been decent even if a lot of cartoons weren't as well done back then, it wasn't the 80s anymore so there were plenty of shows with stakes, Gargoyles, ExoSquad, Mighty Max without mentioning the DC/Marvel shows. I'd love a cartoon.

agreed. Marvel is the only guys on the game even trying to connect a movie and tv universe and it sort of works...to the extent its on its own universe. The shows acknowledge the Marvel films but the films never acknowledge the shows.

Believe me, we would never have a show thats has the film acknowledge any of the events in the show.

Sickle_Claw wrote:

Believe me, we would never have a show thats has the film acknowledge any of the events in the show.

So it'd be similar to current situation where new film sequels don't acknowledge past sequels either, but rather just retcon everything and say 'f*ck it'

Jurassic World didn't reboot the franchise, it was clearly a continuation, they just wanted to keep it clean and not have the baggage of TLW/JP///. I do think a single "sorna" comment could've been inserted without compromising that vision but whatever, they're not retconning anything, we have Malcolm back so TLW will at least get some type of mention.

If however JW2 clearly mentions that this is Malcolm's first adventure since the original film then your post will be redeemed

Sickle_Claw wrote:

Believe me, we would never have a show that has the film acknowledge any of the events in the show.

Rogue One acknowledge Star Wars: Rebels by having a character from that TV show being in the movie. If worked for them, I don't see how it couldn't work for Jurassic Park.

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Sickle_Claw wrote:

Believe me, we would never have a show that has the film acknowledge any of the events in the show.

Rogue One acknowledge Star Wars: Rebels by having a character from that TV show being in the movie. If worked for them, I don't see how it couldn't work for Jurassic Park.

Technically, the episodes that featured Saw Gerrera didn't air until AFTER Rogue One already came out, though Saw Gerrera's rebel cell did get a mention by Kallus when he explained his dislike of Lasats to Zeb. If you want to get technical, Rogue One was actually referencing The Clone Wars as much as it was Rebels.