Warning! Spoilers for Jurassic World: Dominion ahead.
The Velociraptor named Blue had a lethally cute baby in Jurassic World: Dominion, and its inclusion in the sixth Jurassic Park movie caused a lot of conversations before its release. Given what was known about the dinosaurs created by InGen for Jurassic Park, it seemed like Blue shouldn't be able to have offspring. As always, however, life finds a way. And, as explained in Jurassic World: Dominion, Blue's daughter Beta was created by asexual reproduction.
The trailers for Jurassic World: Dominion heavily featured Blue, the final Velociraptor from the pack raised and trained by Jurassic World's Owen Grady (Chris Pratt). Having been released into the wild along with several other dinosaurs seen at the end of the previous Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, many fans were confused to see that Blue now had her own offspring, a little baby raptor named Beta. Yet, despite the excitement that surrounded this new dino, it raised a question Dominion had to answer: how did Blue have her baby during this period between films?
Blue's DNA Helped Her Reproduce On Her Own Before Dominion
The Jurassic Park trilogy revealed that the dinosaurs brought to Isla Nublar from Isla Sorna were all female, allowing InGen to control the population. However, the gaps in their genes were filled with frog DNA, leading the dinosaurs to become sequential hermaphrodites so they can fertilize their own eggs. InGen apparently didn't rectify this unintended phenomenon when they moved forward with the new generation of dinosaurs in Jurassic World. As explained by Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong) in Dominion, Blue's DNA contains extracts from monitor lizards. This genetic gap-filler enables parthenogenesis – the spontaneous development of embryos from unfertilized eggs. After some time freely roaming, Blue decided she wasn't content being the last of her pack and asexually reproduced, giving birth to Beta in the time between Fallen Kingdom and Jurassic World: Dominion.
Some speculated that "Baby Blue" (as she was known prior to the movie's release) would be a direct clone of Blue herself. The Jurassic World: Dominion trailer featured what turned out to be the facility of InGen's rivals, Biosyn. Footage of Owen and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) fleeing various dinosaurs through the Biosyn labs generated theories that Dominion's plot would involve Blue being cloned. It turned out these theories were incorrect, although BioSyn's interest in Beta was still one of Dominion's key arcs. Cloning was, too, but the theme took a rather bizarre turn: Dominion uses a cloned human, Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), and not a replicated dinosaur to explore this theme.
Another theory was that Velociraptor numbers would replenish thanks to males somehow being reintroduced to the species, allowing for conception by more traditional means. Several animal species can change biological sex to increase population sizes, such as clownfish and moray eels. Narratively, it wouldn't have been difficult to bring this to Jurassic World: Dominion. If the Indominus Rex could use cuttlefish DNA to turn invisible in Jurassic World, a few clownfish chromosomes as an explainer for self-sustaining raptor packs is plausible. Velociraptors have always been one of the most popular dinos of the franchise, so another was always welcome. Even though dinosaurs are roaming wild after Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Velociraptor numbers are in decline, with Blue being the last of her pack. Sadly, Beta doesn't exist because of a natural resurgence in the Velociraptor population. Velociraptors aren't the only raptor species out there though, and Dominion features plenty of raptor-action by introducing Atrociraptors and the feathered Pyroraptor.
Why Blue Wasn’t In Jurassic World Dominion Much
The relationship between Blue and Owen was integral to the first two Jurassic World movies, which used their bond to demonstrate both that humans and dinosaurs can coexist, and that even killing machines as perfect as Velociraptors aren't living weapons. However, Jurassic World: Dominion breaks from this tradition by placing Blue's daughter, Beta, in the spotlight. Rather than focusing on the relationship between Owen and Blue, Dominion instead explores dino-human bonding using Beta and Maisie.
Maisie, who is herself a clone born of lab-induced parthenogenesis, feels a natural bond with Beta, especially upon realizing they were both immaculately conceived and fatherless. With Beta and Maisie taking much of the screentime, as well as the rest of the ensemble cast's arcs to resolve, there was little room in the movie for Blue. She does have a scene at the end with Owen that attempts to bring some resolution to their shared story, but this is the extent of her relevance to the plot in the Jurassic World trilogy's final installment.
Fan reception to this direction has been mixed online. Beta is adorable, but Blue has been a fan favorite since she was first introduced in Jurassic World. Like "Rexy" the T-Rex, Blue is an individual dino with her own personality that many fans wanted more of. By the third installment of the franchise, she was too beloved to be replaced by another Velociraptor, even if it's her own cute baby. Reception to Jurassic World: Dominion online has been mixed, notably so for a Jurassic Park installment. Among other criticisms, the shift of focus from franchise-mainstay Blue to plot-device/merch-opportunity Beta has been mentioned more than once as a negative, despite the plausible explanation for her birth.
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