Jurassic World 2 Deleted Scene Confirmed LGBT Character

Screen Rant

By Sandy Schaefer

Published Jun 19, 2018

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom costar Daniella Pineda says that a deleted scene confirmed her character's sexuality in the film.

MILD SPOILERS for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom ahead

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom costar Daniella Pineda has revealed that a deleted scene confirmed her character in the film is gay. Pineda costars in the movie as Dr. Zia Rodriguez, a paleo-vetenarian and one of several franchise newcomers featured in the Jurassic World sequel. The film follows Zia, young systems analyst Franklin Webb (series newcomer Justice Smith), and Jurassic World protagonists Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) on a mission to rescue the dinosaurs of Isla Nublar, when the island's long-dormant volcano comes back to life and threatens to wipe out dino-kind yet again.

The Fallen Kingdom script (written by Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow and his partner Derek Connolly) originally included a scene where Owen and Zia take a moment to chat and get to know one another better, before their dino-saving mission takes a turn for the worst. While the scene in question was also filmed, Pineda says it ended up on the cutting room floor over the course of the movie's post-production.

Here is Pineda's description of the Fallen Kingdom deleted scene in question (which she offered during an interview moderated by Yahoo! Entertainment):

“I look at Chris and I’m like: ‘Yeah, square jaw, good bone structure, tall, muscles. I don’t date men, but if I did, it would be you. It would gross me out, but I’d do it.’ I love that I’m looking at Chris Pratt, the hottest guy in the world, and I’m like, ‘It would gross me out, but I guess I would do it!’ It was also cool, because it was a little insight into my character. But they cut it.”

According to Pineda, this scene made Fallen Kingdom's initial cut, which came in at a whopping two hours and forty minutes long. However, Fallen Kingdom's director J.A. Bayona and Trevorrow ultimately decided to drop the scene during the editing process because it wasn't "relevant to the story, but it was a glimmer into who [Zia] is." Pineda further admitted that she doesn't know yet if Zia will be returning in Jurassic World 3 (which Trevorrow is cowriting and directing), but that she hopes her sexuality is made canon if she does, saying "I'd like to see more of that. Especially in big-ass movies!"

Sadly, the fact that this Fallen Kingdom scene was cut makes it part of a frustrating trend where LGBT characters' sexualities are only identified on a subtextual level or not at all in Hollywood tentpoles. Last year's Thor: Ragnarok similarly cut a scene that confirmed the character Valkyrie is bisexual, while films like Power Rangers and Beauty and the Beast were taken to task for noticeably downplaying moments where a key supporting player is identified as being gay or queer. This fall's Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald has likewise been criticized, following the reveal that it will not "explicitly" confirm creator J.K. Rowling's longstanding claim that Albus Dumbledore is gay.

That's all to say: here's to hoping Jurassic World 3 bucks that trend by bringing Zia back and confirming her sexual orientation, like Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom originally set out to do.