Danielle Solzman
Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous executive producer Scott Kreamer spoke with Solzy at the Movies to discuss the second season.
The series saw its second season launch this past Friday on Netflix. Kreamer gets into spoiler territory so please be forewarned if you haven’t watched yet. If you’ve already watched the first season, be sure to check out our conversation from September.
The second season of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous was the thrilling escapism that I needed during the first week of the year after all the chaos went down in Washington.
Scott Kreamer: I wish I would have had it in front of me. That would have been helpful.
Between Jurassic Park, Jurassic World, and Jurassic Park: Camp Cretaceous, I have probably gone back to the island more times than most during this pandemic.
Scott Kreamer: (Laughs) Well, we’re just trying to help where we can.
I love that the series was able to bring back the watering hole this season.
Scott Kreamer: I really love that sequence and how we were able to populate that. I love that scene, too, and I’m glad you like it. It’s a really cool thing to be able to do. At heart, we’re all fans of this franchise so that was exciting for us as well.
Last season was limited by which dinosaurs were still in their exhibits during the film and series. Can you talk about the discussions that took place regarding which dinosaurs to use this season?
Scott Kreamer: I have a regret from season one, I love Rexy and just by the way that the movie lays out, it wasn’t in the cards for us to use her except in the opening sequence. So right off the bat, I wanted to really utilize Rexy more this season.
As far as getting into the other one, it kind of comes down to Okay, what dinosaurs are plausibly on the island and what are the coolest ones we want to see? The Tyrannosaurus, the trio of Baryonyx sisters—they’re just super cool dinosaurs. Where it comes down to is what would be cool, what do we want to see, and what is plausibly on Isla Nublar.
I love that we got a Blue cameo in there.
Scott Kreamer: Absolutely! Wherever we can, we just want to make sure people feel like—You want to give them things that they they’re comfortable with. We know Blue’s out there.—great. It just kind of adds a little more weight to Yes, this is a canon show and yes, this is the same world that you’ve been watching since 1993.
Was there anything that was particularly off-limits?
Scott Kreamer: Not so much off limits. Luckily, Colin Trevorrow has been very involved with the show and he’s been with us in the writers’ room numerous times. There were occasionally, I think, perhaps some storylines that might be trending to close. I can think of one dinosaur that we didn’t get to us because it might be coming up in Dominion. Colin was writing Dominion as we were conceiving this season. Colin, Frank, and Steven all showed a lot of trust with us so nothing was really off limits but there are there some guardrails into keeping us in the right timeline, the right continuity, and the right story.
What kind of notes did you get from Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall, and Colin Trevorrow?
Scott Kreamer: Well, not so much notes. I mean, there’s a little thought here and there. Luckily, they really liked the show. Frank and Steven will occasionally weigh in with a thought here or there. But really Colin is the one who I guess is just more hands on and he’s now sort of the custodian of the franchise. They’ve been very positive and very generous with their time.
We still have feels like quite a bit of ways to go before the volcano starts getting active. Hypothetically speaking, how many more seasons are possible?
Scott Kreamer: Oh, gosh. I wouldn’t even know how to how to quantify that because when you really look at it, episodes four through eight of season one all took place in one day so the sky’s the limit. We know that from the time Jurassic World falls in season one and the opening sequence of Fallen Kingdom, there’s a six month span. We feel like we have plenty of time and hopefully we get to tell plenty more stories because I think there’s more to do with these characters. Here’s hoping!
Do you have an idea of what you want to do for a third season should the series get renewed? Or have you not even started to think about that?
Scott Kreamer: At the end of season two, Darius says we’re done waiting. It’s up to us to get ourselves off the island. That would be our jumping off point if there would be a season three as well as there’s something behind the door that says E750 on it. I want to find out a little bit more about that, too.
I love how there’s that mystery. I was not even expecting them to find tunnel with the room that brought back the power.
Scott Kreamer: Yeah, there’s so much fun in this season where we’re seeing new dinosaurs but we’re also seeing parts of the island that haven’t been seen in our show or the film. That’s been really fun to get to explore and kind of illuminate new things.
I watched Jurassic World four times last year, and I don’t think I ever saw a Brooklyn stand at one of the stores on Main Street.
Scott Kreamer: The camera must not have shown it somehow. I don’t know how they missed it. Or maybe it’s because we didn’t start on the show until after. But hopefully, they’ll go do a director’s cut later and put her in there somewhere.
Were there any easter eggs that you snuck in there that viewers might have missed?
Scott Kreamer: I’m trying to think. There’s probably a couple—I don’t know. I can’t think of anything right off the top of my head as far as easter egg stuff. But like you said, we wanted to get into the watering hole. Yeah, I’m sorry—nothing jumped out at me. But whenever possible, we like to put something in without shoehorning it if it makes sense. When I rewatch it, if I come up with anything, I’ll let you know.
Thank you again for this series. I mean, I would not be doing what I do without Jurassic Park.
Scott Kreamer: I get it. It’s so funny how many people on this show like our composer, Leo Birenberg. I think Jurassic Park is one of the things that made him want to get into composing. There’s more than a few people on the crew who it was really a touchstone, as far as wanting to get into this industry and storytelling so you’re not alone. That’s pretty amazing.
I got to meet Frank Marshall during SXSW 2019. Just being able to meet and then thank someone for being involved in so many films that were a part of my childhood made my entire festival and year.
Scott Kreamer: He’s such a great guy. I remember we had, I think, an early screening of the pilot over at the DreamWorks lot and Frank was there and then afterwards, he’s telling me and some others stories from the set of Raiders of the Lost Ark. He’s the pilot in the plane that Marion gets into that blows up when the bald guy gets in a fistfight with Indy below. That’s him in there. He’s telling us stories about that. And it’s like thank you so much for all these years of just wonder, really,
Who knows–maybe 20 years from now, someone’s going to be coming up to you to thank you for Camp Cretaceous.
Scott Kreamer: We’ll see. Frank Marshall, I ain’t. But it’s really gratifying seeing that this has meant a lot to some people. With something like this, you want it to be great. But even more than that, you really don’t want to screw it up because it is so important to so many people. It’s been amazing and I’m just very grateful that people are enjoying it.
Thank you again and stay well.
Scott Kreamer: Thank you!
