Jurassic World: Chaos Theory is back and features no shortage of thrills and adventures upon its return for a third season on Netflix.

Please be advised that spoilers will follow for the third season.

I spent my Thursday evening binge-watching the third season of Jurassic World: Chaos Theory and it did not disappoint. The season started where it left off and provided a welcome return to another character from the films. I like how the writing is allowed to make room for characters away from the feature films themselves. If you weren’t sure exactly where they were in the timeline during the second season, well, season 3 makes it very clear. The series starts becoming character-driven as it finally enters Jurassic World Dominion territory towards the latter part of the season.

Darius Bowman (Paul-Mikél Williams), Kenji Kon (Darren Barnet), Brooklynn (Kiersten Kelly), Sammy Gutierrez (Raini Rodriguez), Ben Pincus (Sean Giambrone), and Yasmina “Yaz” Fadoula (Kausar Mohammed) start right where they left off at the end of season 2. The season starts with a really brief recap before the action gets underway. Brooklynn heads to Malta with Soyona Santos/The Broker (Dichen Lachman) for whatever Santos has lined up. Meanwhile, everyone else finds themselves on a flight to Munich on a cargo plane piloted by none other than French Intelligence agent Barry Sembène (Evan Michael Lee).

Unfortunately, a mishap causes them to crash land in–where else–Italy’s Dolomite Mountains. To say that the third season of Jurassic World: Chaos Theory isn’t going for fan service would be an understatement. Whether Brooklynn has something up her sleeves, I’ll let you find out upon watching the show. Where this season really gets interesting in how it touches on the relationship between Biosyn CEO Lewis Dodgson (Adam Harrington), Santos, and The Handler. Santos is eying the black market operating above the catacombs but The Handler is all that is standing in her way.

It’s not a full-on recreation of the black market as it appears in the film. However, they do a pretty solid job in keeping the spirit. Honestly, I rewatched Jurassic World: Dominion right after finishing the finale and it’s amazing just how closely the two match up. The film uses one door to open while the series uses another. It begs the question of if there are multiple doors.

As for Dodgson, the season doesn’t ignore the looming locust crisis. There are tons of locusts already being stored within the catacombs and after things go haywire in Malta, a number of crates are opened as a result of the fallout. It begs the question of whether these are the same locusts that are decimating crops in North America or if it is a different swarm altogether. If you recall from Dominion, the locusts appear before Claire Dearing and Owen Grady met up with Barry in Malta. The series does make clear that a journalist, Davi (Marwan Salama), is already working undercover to find out more about what’s happening in Malta.

Perhaps the best part of Jurassic World: Chaos Theory coming back for season 3 is welcoming another member into Camp Fam. In this instance, it’s Smoothie, a baby Ankylosaurus that hatched from Bumpy’s egg. Much like Baby Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Smoothie steals the show.

There’s more than a few Dominion easter eggs in Jurassic World: Chaos Theory. Barry Sembène was already deep undercover at the start of the season. Soyona Santos/The Broker plays a bigger role this season and even gets an opportunity to create a few Dominion scenes from different perspectives. The series also makes clear what happened to her after Kayla Wise flew off with Claire and Owen. Ben’s girlfriend, Gia (Beatrice Grannò), and her grandmother, Nonna (Isabella Rossellini), do not live that far from Italy’s Dolomite Mountains. How a Pyroraptor escaped Biosyn Valley is beyond me. If that’s not all, Bumpy is now living in the valley.

Where things end is where it gets really interesting. Given both the film timeline and Jurassic World: Chaos Theory timeline, everything is about to hit the fan in Biosyn Valley. What this means for Kenji and Sammy remains to be determined as they stayed behind in Italy. As far as Malta goes, it makes one wonder what Scott Kreamer and Aaron Hammersley have up there sleeves. The episode is satisfying enough to work well as either a season or series finale. It ties up loose ends but at the same time, it also leaves us wanting more. We know that the Jurassic World franchise is about to introduce a new film taking place five years after Dominion.

I think back to my binge of Star Wars: The Clone Wars in late 2019 and early 2020. Jurassic World: Chaos Theory does much of the same as far as filling in the gaps that we don’t see in the films. While Dodgson was brought back as a legacy character for Dominion, he was never going to be a primary focus of the film. Not when you have that many characters in the ensemble. But in this series, they are able to give him more to do, much in the same way that they do with Santos. In doing so, their character development makes them become bigger characters than they were ever meant to be.

Jurassic World: Chaos Theory adds more to the legacy of Jurassic Park and Jurassic World while fans await the premiere of Jurassic World Rebirth. Without Steven Spielberg bringing Michael Crichton’s book to the screen, this series wouldn’t even exist. If this is the end of the ride for the Nublar Six, it’s been a fun ride, albeit thrilling at times. But if it isn’t, I’ll be curious to see wait awaits Camp Fam in a post-Dominion world.

SHOWRUNNERS/EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Scott Kreamer and Aaron Hammersley
DEVELOPED FOR TELEVISION BY: Scott Kreamer, Zack Stentz
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Steven Spielberg, Colin Trevorrow, Frank Marshall
CAST: Paul-Mikel Williams, Darren Barnet, Kiersten Kelly, Raini Rodriguez, Sean Giambrone, Kausar Mohammed

Netflix premiered all ten episodes of Jurassic World: Chaos Theory: Season 3 on April 3, 2025. Grade: 4/5

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