Sam Neill was pleasantly surprised by the reference to his Jurassic Park character Alan Grant in the latest outing Jurassic World Rebirth.
The Event Horizon star, who made his debut as the palaeontologist in the 1993 film, didn't expect his character to be mentioned in the franchise's seventh outing, which features a whole new cast.
In the 2025 blockbuster, Jonathan Bailey's palaeontologist Dr. Henry Loomis casually mentions that he studied under Grant.
Addressing the reference, Neill told Entertainment Weekly, "I was surprised. It's nice when these things refer to each other, and I thought that was respectful and good."
The Peaky Blinders actor added that he is looking forward to meeting the Wicked star in person.
Jurassic World Rebirth starred Bailey, Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali and Rupert Friend as a team who go to a remote island to collect biological materials from the three largest dinosaurs.
Director Gareth Edwards revealed to EW in July that the Alan Grant name-drop is the only reference to another character from a Jurassic film.
"Then the only thing that we did for fun, I designed a little patch that went on his bag that was the Snakewater Canyon," he continued, referring to Grant's palaeontology dig site in the opening of the 1993 film. "It was as if it was a national park badge of that dig site, as if (Henry) had worked there as a kid."
Neill also noted that Johansson once played his on-screen daughter in the 1998 film The Horse Whisperer.
Calling it "a family affair", he quipped, "I feel like my daughter, she's capable of kicking any a*s... She gets it from me."
Neill reprised his role of Alan Grant in 2001's Jurassic Park III and 2022's Jurassic World Dominion. He recently reunited with his co-stars Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum for Xfinity's Super Bowl commercial, which imagines how reliable Wi-Fi could have saved the park from disaster.
