There Was A Mini Jurassic Park Reunion At The Critics' Choice Awards

While their primary purpose is to give trophies out to those considered to be top talents in the entertainment realm, awards shows also provide opportunities for friends and colleagues to reunite and catch up. Case in point, last night at the Critics' Choice Awards, Laura Dern ran into her Jurassic Park costar, Joseph Mazzello, and as once does in the age of social media, they commemorated the reunion with a selfie.

Laura Dern and Jospeg Mazzello Instagram post

Here we have Dr. Ellie Sattler and Tim Murphy, together again! Of course, Mazzello looks much different since he was just a lad when Jurassic Park filmed, but it's nonetheless cool that he and Laura Dern were able to see each other during last night's craziness. Granted, it's possible they both knew ahead of time that the other would be at the Critics' Choice Awards and planned ahead of time to meet rather than just crossed paths by accident. In any case, no doubt many Jurassic Park fans are thankful that Dern shared the moment on Instagram.

While Jurassic Park was the only time we saw Laura Dern and Joseph Mazzello together among the dinosaurs, the two did reprise their respective characters later in the franchise. Mazzello briefly reprised Tim Murphy at the beginning of Jurassic Park alongside his onscreen sister, Ariana Richards' Lex Murphy, at the beginning of The Lost World: Jurassic Park, when Ian Malcolm visited their grandfather, John Hammond, at his mansion. Laura Dern then briefly returned for Jurassic Park III, where she and Alan Grant reconnected before his trip to Isla Sorna.

Even though we're now in the Jurassic World phase of the Jurassic Park franchise, since Jeff Goldblum and B.D. Wong have their respective roles in this film series, that leaves the door open for other Jurassic Park alum to potentially be brought back for Jurassic World 3 or beyond. Goldblum specifically teased that Laura Dern could return, and Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard have both made it clear they're on board for that. Perhaps Joseph Mazzello could be approached as well, and we can see what Tim Murphy is up to these days. One wonders if his experience with dinosaurs as a boy made him want to learn more about the prehistoric creatures or stay far away from them, figuratively and literally.

Even if Laura Dern and Joseph Mazzello aren't able to return to the Jurassic Park franchise, those two are doing well on the acting front. Dern's recent credits include The Founder, Downsizing and Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and along with reprising Renata Klein on the HBO series Big Little Lies later this year, she also has Cold Pursuit and Little Women coming up. As for Joseph Mazzello, he most recently played John Deacon in Bohemian Rhapsody, which scored the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Drama.

The Jurassic Park franchise will resume when Jurassic World 3 is released on June 21, 2021. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates, and in the meantime, you can see what movies there are to look forward to this year by browsing through our 2019 release schedule.

Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.