Jurassic World Dominion may seem like a fitting end for Claire Dearing in the Jurassic Park series, but Bryce Dallas Howard should return for a potential Jurassic World 4. Claire is one of the central characters of the Jurassic World trilogy, alongside the Velociraptor expert Owen Grady (Chris Pratt). Dominion's happy ending gave closure to the couple's story, so if Jurassic World 4 is produced, it's unlikely that either character would appear. But that doesn't need to be the end of Bryce Dallas Howard's involvement in the popular franchise.
The box office success of Jurassic World Dominion suggests that a sequel is almost inevitable. Ticket sales of Dominion are close to $750 million worldwide, which means that so far in 2022 only Top Gun: Maverick, The Batman, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness have made more at the box office. Jurassic World Dominion's financial success comes in spite of the movie's bad reviews, proving that the dinosaur franchise is still a huge hit with theatergoers globally. The reviews should not be ignored though, and if Jurassic Park wants to continue its successful legacy then Jurassic World 4 will need to be handled carefully.
Although the Jurassic World Dominion ending brought Claire's story to a close, Bryce Dallas Howard's involvement with the series could continue as the director of Jurassic World 4. Having been part of Jurassic World since 2015, Dallas Howard is the ideal candidate because she is rooted in the franchise and has a deeper understanding of the Jurassic Park canon than other potential directors. Her role as Claire Dearing puts her in a strong position to pick up from where Dominion left off, or alternatively use her familiarity with the franchise to tell a different modern-age dinosaur story.
Dallas Howard has proven herself to be an accomplished and stylish director with her recent work on The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. In particular, Dallas Howard's well-received second episode, "Chapter 11: The Heiress", shows her talent for establishing new characters and making them feel important, while also directing visually impressive action sequences. There are calls for a Bryce Dallas Howard Star Wars movie, and her skills would also be the perfect fit to make Jurassic World 4 a fun and engaging movie that is distinctive from past Jurassic Park installments.
Crucially, Dallas Howard's episodes on the Star Wars shows demonstrate her ability to bring fresh energy to a long-running franchise. Similar to the position that the Star Wars series was in following the sequel trilogy, the Jurassic Park franchise is currently divisive and stagnating because of its over-reliance on legacy characters and lack of new ideas. A future Jurassic movie will need to turn opinions around in the same way that the recently well-received Star Wars spin-off shows have, by paying homage to the original movies but having their own unique style. For the Jurassic World 4 story to go in the same direction, Bryce Dallas Howard should be appointed director because of her connection to the series and experience of handling new stories in a popular franchise.