How the Spinosaurus SHOULD have been Reintroduced

[Winter]

The Spinosaurus is a... interesting figure as far as Dinosaurs in Pop-Culture go. Within the realm of PC there are two dinosaurs that were made famous by Jurassic Park, the Velociraptor which, as Chuck pointed out in his review of the series, is a completely fictional creature (obviously there were velociraptors in real life but their Nothing like the creatures we see in the films and even the closet equivalent, Utahraptor, doesn't match the creatures in the films) and, of course, the Spinosaurus.

The Spinosaurus was brought into the franchise in an attempt to replace the T-Rex as the series' mascot which was likely fueled by the series' paleontologist advisor John "Jack" R. Horner whom was a firm believer in the idea that T-Rex (a creature who seemed built to be a predator) was a scavenger which was something that made real headway in the main stream in the lead up to JP3.

Enter Spinosaurus who was a dinosaur that was even bigger then the Rex and thus was believed to be a perfect replacement for the T-Rex. It... did not go over well with fans... or critics... or other paleontologists who believed that T-Rex was a predator given it's overall build was more suited to a predator. It didn't help that Spino was seen as a joke as it's design didn't look as threatening or as iconic as the T-Rex. The fact that she defeated the T-Rex so quickly and so effortlessly didn't help. As a result the Spinosaurus became THE Replacement Scrappy of the Decade.

However, because of that hatred other creators... and fans... and paleontologists created scenarios or stories where the Rex and Spino would go up against one another again and again often to show how much better the Rex was by beating the Spino. There are so many examples of this that TV Tropes dedicated an entire page to all the fights that have happened between these two titans (check in out https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ ... VersusTRex ).

Because of this, and the later Jurassic World film giving the original JP T-Rex a fight with a newer monster that she won the Spinosaurus lost it's Scrappy Status and oddly went on to become a fan favorite. Helping her case was that many of the things that fans hated about her became things that made her popular, especially with Jurassic World's attempts to surpass her with the I-Rex. Her design was more memorable and unique then the I-Rex with an overall more menacing appearance and the fact that she is, to date, the only Dinosaur in a popular franchise to have defeated the T-Rex in one on one combat while the I-Rex lost her fight with the T-Rex (yes Blue helped and it was the Mosasaurus that actually killed her but she still lost the fight and even had trouble with Raptors). Even her reletlessly hunt the humans for no good reasons helped because it made her stand out as a threat because she would never stop hunting you and in the end, she survived the film unlike the I-Rex or Indoraptor who both died at the end of their movies. Thanks to this and her regular appearance in Pop-culture the Spinosaurus became famous and is now seen as the T-Rex arch nemesis.

It got to the point that her return in the Fourth Season of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous was a major point of that season's marketing... and fans were Disappointed how little screen time she was given.

As someone who HATED the Spinosaurus when she first appeared I can say that my opinion has soften around her and I personally have my own issue with her role in JWCC's 4th season, mainly, how she was introduced. Long story short Darius, one of the lead characters of the show, just kinda stumbles across her while she's sleeping before she starts chasing him and the other campers.

Personally I would have rather her just to be hinted at. Like the campers finding her footprints, or the corpse of another major predator (maybe even a T-Rex) hinting that there's something on the island they need to fear but there's no time because they're now getting chased by a Smilodon (don't ask) who eventually corners them which leads us to how the Spino should have returned after over a decade.


youtu.be/1bTOhkh2PPw

Now THAT would have been a great was to reintroduce one of the series' most iconic monsters back into the franchise by doing what she always does, killing other predators only to turn around and try to kill the heroes instead.

[McAvoy]

Tbh, I never given that much thought into Jurassic Park and what they should do for sequels. Probably slightly less post Lost World I would imagine.

Honestly at this point it would be pretty damned more shocking to show the T-Rex as a giant chicken with wings attached to his short arms. No one has the balls to do that just yet.