While we wait for the third film in the Jurassic World Trilogy, Jurassic World: Dominion, Netflix has given us a little something to enjoy from Isla Nublar. Today is the release of the second season of the Dreamworks Animated series, Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous on the streaming service. The series has been well received by fans of the franchise. It has allowed us to travel back to the park and further explore the zoo on steroids that only resides in our imagination. During the first season, we saw this group of kids of different backgrounds come together and fight for their survival. Unfortunately, they found out that it was only the beginning of their struggles as they had been left behind.

Here is the synopsis for the second season of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous

Set against the timeline of the blockbuster film Jurassic World, Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous follows a group of six teenagers chosen for a once-in-a-lifetime experience at Camp Cretaceous, a new adventure camp on the opposite side of Isla Nublar who must work together to survive when dinosaurs wreak havoc across the island.

Now stranded on an abandoned Isla Nublar, the campers struggle to survive among the wreckage of Jurassic World. As the T.Rex takes over Main Street, forcing the kids deeper into the jungle, the discovery that they may not be alone not only threatens their rescue but may uncover something more sinister.

The series features the voices of Paul-Mikel Williams as resident dino expert Darius; Jenna Ortega as social media sensation Brooklynn; Ryan Potter as Kenji; Raini Rodriguez as Sammy; Sean Giambrone as Ben; and Kausar Mohammed as Yaz. It’s executive produced by Scott Kreamer and Aaron Hammersley who also serve as showrunners. Steven Spielberg, Colin Trevorrow, and Frank Marshall serve as executive producers. The series was developed by Zack Stentz, who also serves as consulting producer.

Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous is a fun series. Especially one that if you’re a fan of the franchise, you could easily enjoy it with your kids. I enjoyed traveling through the different areas of Isla Nublar that were not featured in the films. Also, I enjoyed the range of dinosaurs that were featured. My daughter was able to relate with the protagonists of the series, while at the same time loving their dinosaur encounters. Despite the franchise being 28 years old this year, it’s still captivating audiences.

Ahead of its release, LRM Online had the privilege to talk with executive producer and showrunner Scott Kreamer. During our interview, he gives us his thoughts on why this series has been successful. We also talk about the kids in the series and how their personalities came to be. It wouldn’t be a Jurassic World conversation without talking about the dinosaurs. Including the status of the T-Rex, the Carnotaurus, and the other chosen dinosaurs for the series. You can check it out below!

Also be sure to watch the second season of Netflix‘s Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous now on the streaming service!

Interview with Scott Kreamer

Emmanuel Gomez: I want to kick off with this question, were you at all surprised at how well the first season of Camp Cretaceous was received?

Scott Kreamer: If I’m being completely honest, yes, I was. I knew we worked really hard. I knew it was the show that I was very proud of, but you know, something like this with an iconic franchise, and I’d had those fears that the internet would be just lying in, wait for us. But yeah, surprised and very gratified at the outpouring of love and enthusiasm for the show.

Emmanuel Gomez: Why do you think that after 28 years there’s still so much love for this franchise?

Scott Kreamer: Well, I don’t know. I like everyone else will never forget the first time I saw Jurassic Park. There’s something about the closest thing we have to mythical figures, which are dinosaurs. I think that’s part of it. It’s just something that you learn about and you love as a child, and maybe it’s tapping into something there. But there’s also such heart to it and humor and love and care that went into it. So I don’t know. It’s one of those lightning in a bottle things. I don’t know if you can just say it’s just one thing. But it’s like you said, I still get the same feeling when I watch it today, and I’ve seen it many, many, many times.

Emmanuel Gomez: In developing the stories for Camp Cretaceous, did you guys have a map or a key of Isla Nublar in order to consider where the stories were going to take place?

Scott Kreamer: Oh my goodness, yeah. Like all over, especially as we were planning out season one. We had maps all over the writer’s room. As well as just pouring over the film like the Zapruder film. Just trying to go, “okay, where can our characters be, where they tend to intersect with events, but not break the canon of the film.” There are lots and lots of maps all over it. That’s one of the things that I’m excited about in season two, is that we’re going to see some places on the island that we didn’t see in season one and sometimes haven’t seen in the films.

Emmanuel Gomez: Can you talk a little bit about, some of those lighthearted moments in the series. Then how you also mixed it in with really great thrilling action sequences with the dinosaurs that seem to be able to not only captivate kids but adults as well.

Scott Kreamer: The whole thing is a balancing act. It can’t just be relentless action without you need that release of tension. You need those little moments of humor. Which maybe it’s not the first thing you think of. But there’s a lot of humor in all of the Jurassic films. On the other side of it, it can’t just be a lab-fest or a clip-fast because then it undercuts the fact that these kids are in real, real peril and that these stakes are real.

ALSO SEE : JURASSIC WORLD: CAMP CRETACEOUS REVIEW – WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU LEAVE KIDS ALONE WITH DINOSAURS 

Emmanuel Gomez: What about the kids? For example, which of the five, and I know it’s tough because they’re all pretty much considered your kids. Which of the five kids have you been most excited to see grow, especially going forward to season two?

Scott Kreamer: Gosh, you know, it is like picking between your kids there. Seeing Darius present himself as more in the leadership role. I’ve seen him going from that thing, seeing these new sides. New emotion layers in Kenji. Breaking down Yaz’s walls more and more. Really seeing a new strength in Sammy, and Brooklyn still fighting whether or not it’s about when she gets home if it’s about boosting followers or it’s about this new family that she’s found herself in real life. So I can’t think of one, unfortunately, but I am hoping the audience will enjoy seeing where they go.

Emmanuel Gomez: Well, I’ll give you my daughter’s favorite.

Scott Kreamer: Oh, let’s hear it.

Emmanuel Gomez: Her favorite hands down is Brooklyn. That makes absolutely perfect sense, because she’s in love with Tik Toks, and the kind of videos Brooklyn does is the kind of people she likes to watch in real life.

Scott Kreamer: Yeah, absolutely, and my daughter, like I said, is 10 years old as well. My daughter Roxy is 10, and she’s definitely in camp Brooklyn.

Emmanuel Gomez: Obviously you guys took all these characters and gave them very distinct personalities in order to make them clash. But at the same time be able to grow together and explore more than these personalities that they’ve been stuck with.

Scott Kreamer: Yeah, 100%. In the early days when we were first conceiving the series and the characters, and what type of characters would you want to start out with, and who would be interesting together. We started with all these archetypes, and then just basically spent the rest of our time figuring out how to subvert the expected things and really show some surprising growth. Wherever possible, just the illuminating parts of the character that we hadn’t seen before and hopefully hadn’t expected.

Emmanuel Gomez: So how did you guys go about picking the specific dinosaurs that would be featured?

Scott Kreamer: A lot of that just, we went by the scientific approach of what would be really cool. We do have constraints, whether it be just money or assets or just having enough people to get all the work done. So you can’t just have every dinosaur you can think of. We really went like, “okay, well what makes sense here? What’s the coolest dinosaur we can use that maybe hasn’t been seen? Or if it hasn’t seen, hasn’t been featured as much in the films.” Yeah, it came down to wouldn’t this be cool, a cool dinosaur to use.

Emmanuel Gomez: I found it really clever that you guys, for the first season, didn’t go for the franchise Tyrannosaurus Rex. Instead, you guys use the Carnotaurus, which they nicknamed Toro.

Scott Kreamer: Well part of that was that of necessity because of the way the film breaks down. The T-Rex doesn’t come into the film until well after dark. By that point, our characters are already on the monorail and on there. That actually bothered me just because I loved the T-Rex. I was happy when we were kind of brainstorming on the opening titles. I think it was Colin’s idea to have the T-Rex bursting through the Gates. He said, “See, now you get to have it in every episode.”

So that’s another thing that I’m looking forward to in season two, is that we didn’t get to see that iconic T-Rex in season one. But now, now where it makes sense, now we can see Rexy. That being said, Toro turned out to be a fantastic antagonist, and I really liked the design. I liked the portrayal of that Carnotaurus, no one to be trifled with.

Emmanuel Gomez: You’re working with a lot of people who are also working at the same time on a next feature film for the franchise. What are the challenges in developing an ongoing animated series that’s based on an ongoing film franchise?

Scott Kreamer: Well, it’s not as much as a challenge because after the first episode and the first sequence in Fallen Kingdom takes place six months after Jurassic World. Then the rest of the movie is like three years later. So we’ve got photo land where if we’re smart about it, we are going to stay in the film canon and hopefully continue to intersect with the storylines from the films.

What’s nice is we’ve got Colin Trevorrow, who’d been very instrumental and very involved in, whether it be breaking of stories, or we’re looking at designs, or whatever. He wrote and directed Dominion. So we have a wealth in that we have that knowledge of where the franchise is heading, and occasionally able to course correct if we’re heading in a direction that they’re already treading on, or if it goes in a completely different way than where the films are heading.

Emmanuel Gomez: Speaking of timing, I’m not sure if you can share this with me. But about how much time passes between season one and the bulk part of season two?

Scott Kreamer: Well, the beginning of season two takes place very quickly after the end of season one. There is, I don’t think this is a spoiler, there’s a little bit of a time jump that takes place during the season. I don’t want to get too spoilery. So that does take place, but it’s not like we’re not flashing ahead to now suddenly where we’re in Fallen Kingdom or anything like that.

Emmanuel Gomez: No, I would expect the kids to have grown a little bit more, and maybe a little bit more adult involvement in their search.

Scott Kreamer: Exactly

Emmanuel Gomez: What is it like for you being able to add to this popular franchise?

Scott Kreamer: I think I speak on behalf of the entire crew. Like I think to a person we all came into this as fans of the franchise. So the fact that we can be part of it, it’s hard to really comprehend. This is something that means a lot to me, and it means a lot to the entire crew and the cast, and everyone involved. It’s a big feeling of gratitude, and you still every once in a while pinch yourself like, “wow, this is, this is my gig. How cool is this?” Yeah, it’s an honor, and it’s also because it means so much to us and to so many other people. It’s also a really big responsibility, and it’s not a responsibility that we take lightly.

Emmanuel Gomez: Well, I’m going to tell you as a long time Jurassic Park, Jurassic World fan myself, it means a whole lot to me because of the fact that in all of the movies, you only get to see snippets of what Isla Nublar, what these parks really were in the grand scheme of things. A show like Camp Cretaceous really allows us to expand on that and not just have to use our imagination. We can actually see it.

Scott Kreamer: I’m so glad. That was definitely something that we always had in mind. Which is we wanted to see some places where fans would go, “Oh, I know where that is.” Also explore places that, for whatever reason, they just haven’t shown in the film. So I’m glad to hear that resonated with you.

Emmanuel Gomez: So with that, I want to ask you from your point of view, what do you hope fans take away from this from Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous?

Scott Kreamer: At the end of the day, the message of this show is I think two-fold. One is we’re all stronger when we stick together. Two, that kids can feel the kids can do anything and that these kids are going to survive. And not in spite of being kids, they’re going to pull together and achieve things because they’re kids. I don’t know if we put six adults in the same situation if they would have the ingenuity or come together like our campers.

Emmanuel Gomez: You’re not wrong. In Jurassic Park, as soon as the T-Rex showed up, one ran to the bathroom. One was waving a flare…

Scott Kreamer: A flare, and then the other guy grabs a flare. Exactly. I think in, not to get too sentimental or whatever. This is sort of our love letter to all those kids out there who are fighting the good sides. Who are trying to do better than the generation before them, and trying to fix some of the mistakes that the people before them have made.

Emmanuel Gomez: That’s very well put. Scott, thank you so much for spending some time with me. Congratulations from a 32-year-old, as well as a 10-year-old, on a fantastic series.

Scott Kreamer: I really appreciate that. And again, happy birthday to your daughter. I appreciate your kind words, and for taking the time to talk about this show.