EPs and showrunners Scott Kreamer and Aaron Hammersley talk about the all-new DreamWorks Animation series, set 6 years after the events at Camp Cretaceous and in the wake of tragedy, as ‘The Nublar Six’ reunite, deal with their grief and sense of loss, and try to unravel a conspiracy that threatens dinosaur and humankind alike; the 10-episode first season debuts May 24 on Netflix.
The Nublar Six are back… minus one. It’s been almost two years since the final episode of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous aired, and while rejoining the gang grieving the loss of Brooklynn, which came as a shock to most fans, executive producer and showrunner Scott Kreamer was slightly less surprised.
“We were making the final season of Camp Cretaceous when I started noodling on the idea,” says Kreamer. “I remember having to answer questions a certain way when I did press for Season 5. The idea was always there, to do this conspiracy thriller and make the stakes even more real than they had been.”
And what could be more real than running for one’s life from dinosaurs? Actually, being killed by one. And then, while grieving for such a loss, finding out that it was no accident.
With its 10-episode first season releasing Friday, May 24 on Netflix, DreamWorks Animation and Universal Animation Studio’s Jurassic World: Chaos Theory is set six years after the events of Camp Cretaceous and shortly before the events of Jurassic World Dominion (2022). The Nublar Six – who had survived being stranded at an adventure camp on dino-dominated Isla Nublar for a year – have disbanded following Brooklynn’s tragic death from a dinosaur attack. Former group leader Darius, overcome with guilt for not being able to save his friend, has embraced a mostly solitary lifestyle dedicated to finding a way to take down the dino that killed her.
That is until Ben invades Darius’ cabin and tells him Brooklynn’s death was “no accident.” In a world where dinosaurs roam freely, Darius is forced to face his demons as the “Camp Fam” reunites to travel across the United States and unravel a vast conspiracy while being targeted by a trio of raptors controlled by a mysterious owner.
Check out the trailer:
“Where we left Camp Cretaceous, Brooklynn's the one investigating things and asking questions that people don't want to be answered,” shares Kreamer. “It just lent itself to this story and felt like the right way to go.”
The new show is produced by DreamWorks and Universal with Amblin Entertainment and Atomic Cartoons. Returning cast members from Camp Cretaceous include Paul-Mikél Williams, Sean Giambrone, Kausar Mohammed, and Raini Rodriguez, who reprise their respective roles as Darius Bowman, Ben Pincus, Yasmina Fadoula, and Sammy Gutierrez. The characters of Brooklynn and Kenji Kon have been recast with Kiersten Kelly and Darren Barnet.
Aaron Hammersley joins Kreamer as an executive producer and showrunner.
“It was a fairly compressed timeline in terms of development of this first season,” says Hammersley of Chaos Theory. “I remember being brought on and we got going immediately. There wasn't a lot of second-guessing or people hemming and hawing over the direction of this show. Scott had a very clear idea of what he wanted to do, and we ran with it. I think we heavily benefited from nobody being able to go, ‘Wait. Are we sure about that?’”
Seeing a friend ripped apart by a dinosaur on camera or seeing with their own eyes their family member being killed by raptors might have seemed a bit much if the crew stopped to think about it for too long. But the truth is, The Nublar Six had already had too many side-swipes with death and, for the stakes to feel real as adults, death-on-death was a heartbreaking but fitting choice.
“If this had been a regular development for a show, with so many eyes on it, I'm not sure we could have gotten this through to a certain point,” notes Kreamer. “Our head writer Bethany Armstrong Johnson and I just kept looking at each other like, ‘Alright. We're still going? Let’s go.’”
Hammersley and Kreamer consider the transition from Camp Cretaceous to Chaos Theory similar to the increasingly mature evolution of the Harry Potter film series.
“If Camp Cretaceous was the Chamber of Secrets, we’re now in The Deathly Hallows with Chaos Theory,” says Kreamer.
Hammersley adds, “I am excited for the audience to see how seriously we took this story and how it does feel like it's matured. We get to spend more time in each episode with our characters, so it also feels like a more intimate story than Camp Cretaceous.”
Spending so much quality time with these now grown-up characters meant considerable attention had to be paid to changes in details of their style, bone structure, even skin texture. In flashback scenes, Brooklynn’s hairstyle goes from a pink, messy bun to a blue and green pixy cut, to then a more grown-out purple-colored cut just before her death. Kenji’s rock climbing has made him fit for battle, Darius’ jaw has squared off and his locks have grown out, Sammy’s colorful hairstyle has been influenced by many Brooklynn visits while Yazmina has retired her track shorts and seems to be embracing girlfriend Sammy’s country-girl jackets.
But the biggest change can be seen in Ben. Apparently, the Harry Potter themes continue because, like Neville Longbottom’s noticeable transformation from clumsy nerd to tallest and most capable in the lot, Ben Pincus has bulked up and now towers over all his friends. He’s the only one who’s barely recognizable.
“There was a lot of back and forth because you want them to age but they still have to be recognizable as themselves,” says Kreamer. “But I had this idea of Ben's growth spurts and, as the heads at DreamWorks put it, ‘kicking awkward youth in the ass.’ It was a lot of trial and error.”
But amidst all the growth spurts and changes, the team wanted to make sure the characters still had a child-like essence and sweet appeal. After all, they are all bonded by shared childhood trauma.
“There are times where, in a CG space, as you get into adult animated characters, they tend to become more proportioned and anatomically correct,” explains Hammersley. “But we knew our characters should still have a youthfulness about them. So, we tried to keep our eye on that, making sure that, as we aged the characters, there was still a lot of youth and appeal in the faces and that the eyes still emote as well as their younger versions.”
And, of course, the youthful friendship connections still had to be there, despite Brooklynn’s passing.
“They’ve grown but, in their hearts, they're still who they used to be,” says Kreamer. “None of us are the same as we were at 12 but, in this show at least, you can still see what’s always been important to these characters.”
Kicking off Chaos Theory with a Darius and Ben road trip was certainly a smooth way to exercise those old friendship muscles that, at least for Darius, have atrophied.
“When you're a close-knit group, and then you're separated for a time, and you come back together, are those relationships still what they used to be?” asks Hammersley. “I liked, in the second episode, how you see in those interactions between Ben and Darius that there's still so much history and comfort between them. But it’s also been a long time and they’re not totally synched up. Those were the parts I enjoyed working on the most.”
Kreamer was adamant that, when it came to reuniting the Camp Fam, he didn’t want the reunion happening all at once, or necessarily happy.
“There's a world where everyone gets back together in the pilot, but we didn't want to do that,” says Kreamer. “We wanted to really kind of tap into that time in people's lives where they were apart and trying to figure out who they are, who they want to be, and where they fit in. But their relationships were still forged in a really traumatic childhood, and they keep coming back to those bonds.”
To Kreamer’s point, Ben and Darius’ first interactions are more like that of a jaded, retired detective who’s seen too much, and his buddy, who’s still in the game, trying to get him back on the job.
“Some people don't like me making these very dated references, but there's this Warren Beatty thriller from 1974 called The Parallax View and our opening sequence is pretty much an homage to that,” explains Kreamer.
In the film, a TV journalist named Lee Carter witnesses the assassination of a U.S. senator and presidential aspirant. An investigation attributes the killing to a single man who acted alone but, three years later, Carter visits her ex-boyfriend and fellow journalist Joe Frady, and tells him that six witnesses to the assassination have since died and she fears she will be next.
“Basically, Ben is Paula Prentiss’ Lee Carter and Darius is Warren Beatty’s Joseph Frady,” says Kreamer. “That was the impetus for kicking off this epic adventure. Aaron and I always spoke about establishing a new mood and a new tone for the show. And what our lighting and comp supervisor Eric Hawkins has done with lighting and shadows created a huge shift into something more sophisticated, if that’s even the right word, and much more dark.”
Still, it’s not a DreamWorks show without at least a bit of dazzle. In Episode 4 “Brothers,” Darius, Ben, and Sammy visit Kenji, who is still holding a grudge against Darius for the accident with Brooklynn. Darius follows a distraught Kenji up a cliff where he witnesses glowing, fluorescent dinosaurs gleaming in the rays of a setting sun as they graze in an open field.
“Wonder is still an important part of telling this story,” states Kreamer. “My vision for that scene was that it needed to be the Aurora Borealis with dinosaurs and just most beautiful thing you've ever seen. And the animators nailed it. Not that I’m surprised. And I have to credit our art director J.P. Balmet with the amazing work he did.”
When it comes to future stories with The Nublar Six, it’s fairly evident at the end of Episode 10, “The End of the Beginning,” that this is not the end. While additional seasons haven’t been confirmed, the story promises more adventures and surprises.
“I'm just proud of the whole thing, what we've done here and pushing this into a more adult scene,” says Kreamer. “But I think there's plenty for kids to like, as well, and go somewhere the features and the franchise haven't really gone. Anytime you get a chance with an enormous, beloved IP like this and try to do something new and different, you do it. And I think, I hope, we've been successful.”
Victoria Davis is a full-time, freelance journalist and part-time Otaku with an affinity for all things anime. She's reported on numerous stories from activist news to entertainment. Find more about her work at victoriadavisdepiction.com.
