Jurassic World: Rebirth Almost Killed Off This Fan-Favorite Character

July 5, 2025: Jurassic World: Rebirth pulls off one of the franchise’s biggest fake-outs — but it wasn’t always meant to. According to director Gareth Edwards, Mahershala Ali’s character, Duncan Kincaid, was originally supposed to die.

In the film’s climactic sequence, Duncan heroically distracts the terrifying new dinosaur, the Distortus rex, allowing Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson), Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey), and the stranded Delgado family to escape the island by boat. The scene is shot to suggest Duncan dies off-screen — until a final twist reveals he survived, sending up a flare to rejoin the group.

But as Edwards told USA TODAY, that ending was a last-minute change prompted by the studio.

“My first gut feeling was to kill him, and that’s what I tried to do,” Edwards said, adding that Ali was on board with the sacrifice.

Earlier drafts by screenwriter David Koepp had Duncan dying even earlier in the story. But after screening the director’s cut — which ended with Duncan’s death — the studio requested an alternate version where the character survives. Edwards was initially reluctant, but agreed to edit together a new ending.

“We played all the cards you play when someone’s about to have their last moment,” he explained. “So then, weirdly, I think it’s a surprise when he lives.”

That surprise paid off. Edwards described watching the film with a live audience and hearing cheers erupt when Duncan’s survival was revealed.

“It was one of those occasions where sometimes the studio knows what they’re on about,” he admitted.

Koepp, who’s been with the franchise since the original Jurassic Park, agreed with the change. As the film evolved, Duncan became a more central figure — and with a powerhouse actor like Ali in the role, killing him off just before the credits felt like a mistake.

Not Your Typical Jurassic Ending

In another break from franchise tradition, Rebirth leaves its dinosaur villain alive. The Distortus rex — a grotesque, gene-spliced predator — does not meet a grisly end. Edwards considered bringing back the classic T. rex for a final battle, as seen in previous films, but ultimately chose a different path.

“I started thinking, ‘Oh, my God, is this something we should be doing?’” he recalled. But it was the visual effects supervisor who talked him out of it: “That’s what happens in all the movies… I was so pleased when you didn’t do that.”

Instead, Rebirth ends with Duncan, Zora, and Henry leaving the island with dinosaur DNA that could cure heart disease. Rather than sell it to a pharmaceutical company, Zora decides to make the cure accessible to all — a hopeful note that counters the franchise’s usual cautionary tone.

But with the D. rex still roaming free, the message is clear: the danger isn’t over.