Scott Kreamer talks Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous Season 5

Scott Kreamer spoke with Solzy at the Movies about the fifth and final season of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous on Netflix.

This interview marks my fourth and final spoiler-filled interview with the series showrunner. It’s in your best interest that you wait until concluding the season before reading. In this interview, Kreamer breaks down some of the pressing questions about the direction of the past season.

This season deals with the arrival of Kenji’s father, Daniel Kon. What are his plans with Mantah Corp. and how will they impact Camp Fam? Will the campers make it home? If you’ve already watched the fifth season, you already know these answers. Scroll down below the fifth season artwork to check out what Scott Kreamer had to say.

The series is executive produced by Scott Kreamer and Aaron Hammersley who also serve as showrunners. Steven Spielberg, Colin Trevorrow, and Frank Marshall serve as executive producers. The series was developed by Zack Stentz.

Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous features the voices of Paul-Mikel Williams as Darius; Jenna Ortega as Brooklynn; Ryan Potter as Kenji; Raini Rodriguez as Sammy; Sean Giambrone as Ben; and Kausar Mohammed as Yaz. Returning this season are Glen Powell as Dave, Jameela Jamil as Roxie, Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Dr. Mae Turner and Haley Joel Osment as Kash Langford.

I want to talk about the Barbasol can. Was it always the plan to have Lewis Dodgson appear and retrieve it or was this one of the notes that you got from Colin?

Scott Kreamer: Oh, no. We were happy that Colin let us do it. I don’t know if it’s a chicken or the egg thing. He was writing Dominion while we were developing the show and everything. We always knew we wanted to have Dodgson in it, especially when we found out Dodgson was going to be a character in Dominion. I don’t know if it came out of the writers room or one of the artists pitched it—him finding the Barbasol can—but as a fanboy, I was pretty excited to see the can in Dominion that they found on our little TV show. That was pretty neat.

Were there any particular notes about his appearance?

Scott Kreamer: Well, we didn’t have a lot to go on because when we were doing it, I don’t even know if they had had filmed his scenes yet. What I do remember is we got an early wardrobe test picture of Campbell Scott. That’s sort of what we based it on. I really don’t think they shot his stuff yet so our design team started with that picture. We knew Campbell Scott was going to be the actor so that’s kind of what we had to go on.

At what point in the process of breaking story did you all decide to make Sammy and Yaz an item?

Scott Kreamer: It’s interesting. We didn’t set out to tell that story but I want to say as far back as season one. Not to sound all writery but the characters were kind of leading us there. It’s like, ahh, you know what, this makes a lot of sense. We had so much stuff to cover. There were thoughts about well, should we get into that in season two. We ended up deciding to kind of slow play it. Like I said, it’s just sort of where the characters led us to and I’m really happy the way it came out.

As a Jurassic Park/Jurassic World fan, I’m glad to see LGBTQ visibility.

Scott Kreamer: Yeah, that was important to us, too. We’ve always had a diverse cast. As people putting stuff out there, especially for kids, you want kids to be able to see a piece of themselves up on that screen. It doesn’t matter gender or race or sexual orientation, but just pieces of all these characters. But that’s our world and you want to show it. Like I said, everybody should get a chance, especially kids, to see a piece of them up on up on screen. It was very important for us to do, too.

Was there a time when Bumpy wasn’t going to make it to the new island?

Scott Kreamer: That was a tricky thing. Knowing where Fallen Kingdom went, we were definitely going alright, how do we get Bumpy off this island. Bumpy is essentially our seventh character, our seventh camper rather. We had a bunch of different ways of doing it but yeah, I don’t think we were ever going to abandon Bumpy on Nublar.

In breaking story for the fifth season, we know they’re getting off the island but was there anything that was off-limits?

Scott Kreamer: Nothing that really comes to mind. Early on, I think we had a storyline that was going in a certain direction. I think at that point, like I said, when Colin was writing Dominion, it was straying a little too close so we kind of course corrected a bit. Whether it’s Colin, Universal, DreamWorks, or Netflix, they’ve let us take these big swings in places and we’re always conscious of being as close to Jurassic canon as we can. I wouldn’t say nothing comes to mind as far as something that was expressly off-limits.

I will say that after watching these five seasons, I now understand why we never hear about Mantah Corp. in Fallen Kingdom or Dominion.

Scott Kreamer: Yeah. Again, we have our little corner of the franchise here but we do have to stay within what’s going on in the broader sense of the film universe. Everything we do is with—we have a little bit of the guardrails of okay, well, we can’t contradict or we can’t make things make no sense.

How long after the events of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, does the series epilogue take place?

Scott Kreamer: Well, in my mind, it’s that week that Maisie lets out the dinosaurs, if not sooner than that. I had always imagined that was how we end the series. When we were really developing the show, Fallen Kingdom just came out. The fact that we had already established that Darius lived in a suburb of Oakland, it all kind of came together so wouldn’t take all that long to get for a dinosaur to get from the Lockwood estate to the suburbs of Oakland.

Did you all ever consider one more appearance from Rexy instead of the Brontosaurus?

Scott Kreamer: Yeah, we definitely did. But the idea was to wrap it up. If you have Rexy, now that’s a very different last scene. Now there’s screaming, now there’s sirens. You know what I mean? So, yes, it was definitely thought about but this is how we wanted to wrap it up.

Do any of these dinosaurs make it to Biosyn Valley or is the island still being kept secret in the Jurassic canon?

Scott Kreamer: Well, I mean, the true answer is I don’t know for sure. But it was always our idea that, okay, this is going to be a secret sort of like what Lockwood was trying to do—a place for these dinosaurs to be free. But you never know. They could be out there. That’s a big valley. Some of them could be out there right now. We just don’t know.

What were the biggest notes during the season?

Scott Kreamer: I can’t remember really specific notes. We knew where we wanted to go. We knew that we really wanted to really try to give a satisfying conclusion to the series and for these characters. Colin’s approach is very similar as ours, which is, it’s about getting to the truth within these characters. Like I said, there was little course corrections along the way but nothing really jumps out as far as we want to do something and someone said, No, do it this way instead.

What were the biggest challenges this season because of the pandemic?

Scott Kreamer: We figured out working from home pretty good. I mean, it didn’t take us long to get back up and running. Editing could be a little challenging depending on what everyone’s internet looks like. I think the real thing is—much like the kids are a camp family, this is a pretty big crew. You want to make sure everyone still feels like they’re a part of something as opposed to just drawing in a room by themselves. It was hard, but trying to make sure everyone still felt connected to one another because that’s how something like this works. It only works if we’re all communicating, we’re all connected, and we’re all moving forward with one purpose.

What are you going to miss the most about working on the series?

Scott Kreamer: It’s the people—this crew, an amazing cast to have become close with, all the people, everyone. It takes a lot of passionate, talented people working with a common purpose. We’ve been doing this for a while. That’s what I’m gonna—it’s been amazing being part of this franchise, our little part of it. But yeah, the people you work with, I’ve been very lucky to work with an amazing group of people.

I’m so glad we got these few seasons to hold us over between Fallen Kingdom and Dominion last month.

Scott Kreamer: Yeah, well, we did what we could. We’re trying to help the team.

It’s been so nice getting to talk with you over these past few seasons and I look forward to seeing what you do next.

Scott Kreamer: I appreciate that. Thanks as always for your support and it was great talking to you as well.