Showrunner and EP Scott Kreamer digs deep into the lives of two key ‘Nublar Six’ members, and how their seemingly reckless actions, centered around efforts to find the truth and expose the dinosaur trafficking they’ve uncovered, in reality keeps them from dealing with some uncomfortable truths about their losses; new season now streaming on Netflix.
When looking back on the start of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, which premiered in 2020, and how far the series has come after five seasons, along with its sequel series Jurassic World: Chaos Theory, Scott Kreamer says working on the show has consisted of “long nights and short years.”
“My son was six when we greenlit Camp Cretaceous and he had just gotten this dinosaur encyclopedia which he brought to me and said, ‘You can use this for work,’” remembers Kreamer, showrunner and executive producer on Camp Cretaceous and Chaos Theory. “Now, my boy is turning 13 and is giving me critiques on the seasons.”
It’s a special thing when a project lasts long enough for creatives to see their own children, as well as the show’s characters, go from one stage of life to another. Chaos Theory, which is set six years after the events at Camp Cretaceous, follows members of “The Nublar Six” as they struggle to find their footing off the islands, navigating a world now filled with dinosaurs and people who want to hurt them. The show is now in its second season.
“You don’t normally get to follow characters this long into different stages of their lives,” says Kreamer. “We know how lucky we are to be able to do that.”
Produced by Universal Pictures, DreamWorks Animation, and Amblin Entertainment, Chaos Theory Season 2, now streaming on Netflix, finds the former campers wrestling with the death of camp fam mate Brooklynn while also trying to finish what she started: hunting down the truth behind the dinosaur trafficking Brooklynn had been working to expose. But, as it turns out, Brooklynn is alive, still on a quest to stop the dino buyers and sellers within the shadow of her faked death, and the campers draw closer and closer to reuniting.
Check out the trailer:
All the Nublar Six have been through their fair share of life-altering moments and seasons of maturity. But perhaps the character who has been through the most change – mentally and physically – is Brooklynn, now back from the dead and struggling to get back into the groove of investigative journalism with one less arm and five friends in mortal danger.
“When we first decided that Brooklynn was going to have an acquired limb difference after the dino attack, the first thing we did was talk to people who know what that would be like,” notes Kreamer. “We had a number of meetings with consultants from Disability Belongs in California, five or six people with limb differences, some congenital, some acquired, because we want ed to get this thing right. We're shining a spotlight on a very underrepresented part of the population. So, we asked a lot of questions. And we were all in those conversations, from our art director John-Paul Balmet to my fellow executive producer and showrunner Aaron Hammersley.”
Formerly known as RespectAbility California, Disability Belongs is a diverse, disability-led nonprofit that works to create systemic change in how society views and values people with disabilities, and that advances policies and practices that empower people with disabilities to have a better future. Their mission is to fight stigmas and advance opportunities so people with disabilities can fully participate in all aspects of community.
“At the time we connected with Disability Belongs, we were looking for a writer who understood Brooklynn’s narrative,” notes Kreamer. “And one of the consultants we worked with, Peter Lee, became one of our writers. And he’s a hell of a writer. We ended up having him write on the show for more than just Brooklynn.”
Brooklynn, on the surface, appears to be navigating the loss of her arm with immense endurance, not letting it stop her from going undercover with Dinosaur Liberation Now (DLN) and doing all she can to find the broker and mysterious leader of a dinosaur smuggling ring. But she still suffers from so much unspoken trauma and sadness that's still simmering under the surface.
“Though it’s not explicitly said, we are showing that Brooklynn’s big sacrifices, in an effort to uncover the truth, are not only showing how the loss of a limb doesn’t stop her from being a great journalist, but also how throwing oneself into work can be a method used to avoid difficult conversations and revelations,” shares Kreamer. “If Brooklynn throws herself completely into her work, she doesn’t have to spend time processing what she’s gone through.”
There is a scene in the new season where Brooklynn, having accidentally reunited with some members of her camp fam, is walking away from Kenji and, as she goes to reach for a nearby wall, she stumbles, forgetting that the rest of her arm is no longer there. She stares at her arm, like she can still see the fantom limb, then quickly pushes away the emotions. There are also moments in the season where Brooklynn both jests and sincerely vents about the concept that people treat her differently, more fragile, because she is missing an arm. These moments don’t last long, but they are peppered throughout the episodes. The culmination of her actions isn’t just about approaching the subject of whether differently abled means being “disabled.”
Brooklynn’s efforts, though heroic, are still a coping mechanism. And, in the quiet moments where she’s not facing death, small, animated segments show how she still hasn’t fully adopted her new normal.
“We would have loved to have spent twice as long on Brooklynn’s relationship with her limb difference,” says Kreamer. “But we had to really truncate the story. I think that Peter, our show’s story editor Bethany Armstrong Johnson, and one of our episode directors Mike Mullen did a great job fitting a lot in a little time. Also, Kiersten Kelly, the new voice of Brooklynn, was also born with a limb difference. We ran a lot of this past her as well.”
Kelly, who replaced Jenna Ortega as Brooklynn, was born missing the same part of her arm as what Brooklynn uses after the dinosaur attack. Kelly has been vocal on social media about her own limb difference, playing a pivotal part in the bid for authenticity surrounding Brooklynn’s journey after losing her arm.
“We read actresses with limb differences and we read actresses with no limb differences,” says Kreamer. “At the end of the day, you want to get the best actor for the role. And there were obviously big shoes to fill with Jenna Ortega leaving. But Kiersten has something special, and we just kept bringing her back. Then, the fact that she also had a limb difference added this authenticity to what Brooklynn was going through.”
He adds, “I’ve said this to AWN before and I’ll say it again. We may not get everything right. But it's not for a lack of trying. So much of the whole series is about how people process trauma in different ways, and we wanted, not just with Brooklynn, but with Kenji too, to get to a place where these experiences felt real.”
Kenji (voiced by Darren Barnet), who loses his father in a raptor attack while still grieving Brooklynn, become a daredevil in Season 2, throwing himself into all kinds of dangerous situations that almost result in him getting eaten by a dinosaur himself. This is not dissimilar to Brooklynn’s actions and the two characters are on almost parallel trauma journeys, even if Kenji still has both of his arms. Both characters are throwing themselves into the line of fire to avoid dealing with what they’ve lost and will never get back.
To Kenji and Brooklynn’s credit, much of their daredevil avoidance tactics are successful and help their friends uncover more about the dino schemes afoot. However, there are a couple times where it was a bit too close for comfort and even their successes aren’t enough to distract their friends from seeing there’s something serious going on.
“To be fair, these kids have been putting their lives on the line since they got stranded on that island,” notes Kreamer. “So, it’s hard to find a clear boundary with what’s healthy and what’s just these campers being who the island made them to be. Like everything else with these characters, we try to paint in shades of grey. How are these near-death experiences different? Is it a question of motivation? Of thought process? We try not to make the answers so easy.”
There's a lot that's not being said verbally, that's instead being shown just in Brooklynn and Kenji’s little eye twitches and facial shifts. There is more “show don’t tell” methods used in this season of Chaos Theory than almost any other part of the Camp Cretaceous story.
“If you can pull out a line of dialog because you can get what the character is thinking just from what you’re seeing on their face, that's when you really feel like you're in this,” says Kreamer. “And a lot of it starts in the storyboards. There's more attention paid to that by Aaron and our supervising producer Zesung Kang and writer and story editor Bethany Armstrong Johnson, not to mention our directors and our board artists. I'm thinking about some of the great expressions Brooklynn makes in this series and I’m picturing a storyboard by Natalie Carmouche. And then it all comes alive in the animation thanks to CG supervising producer Dan Godinez, CG animation director Ryan Donoghue, animation supervisor Haley Carroll, and animation artist Jose Sanez Velasquez.”
Though storyboards are sometimes seen as nothing more than reference tiles for animated shots, there can be as many as 100 points of interest on one storyboard of a character’s face, explaining each reason for every wrinkle and every movement. Even the brainstorming of Brooklynn’s hair changes played a role in giving insight into her character development and hero’s journey.
“Everyone had an opinion about the hair – our art director JP, our character designer Will Nichols – so there was a lot of back and forth about style and color,” says Kreamer. “There were definitely some folks saying, ‘Well, it’s got to be pink.’ But Brooklynn’s not the same person at 19 that she was at 13. We talked about the fact that, maybe, she shouldn't be coloring her hair at all now. So, there were many discussions. I’m happy where it all ended up.”
Brooklynn’s hair wasn’t just used as a symbol of her fun, rebellious personality. It also was used to illustrate the close-knit friendships she held with the other campers, despite being so busy with her work. Early on in the new season, Yazmina comments on Brooklynn’s “totally on purpose” green and purple hair that she knew was actually a dye job gone wrong. Small interactions like this are also what fuel so much of the emotion when Brooklynn reunites with her friends under compromising circumstances.
“I've got a buddy from high school who I talk to maybe once a year, but we pick up right where we left off every time,” shares Kreamer. “These campers are bonded forever. Things aren't how they used to be, but they still went through something together, and that will always be there.”
As Kreamer and the crew work on a character trauma narrative while subverting audience expectations with shifting loyalties and even hippo attacks, the second season wraps with a promise (or rather earnest hope) for much more story. Even with no formal Season 3 announcement made by DreamWorks, Kreamer teases plans for more Chaos Theory.
“We started Camp Cretaceous in Jurassic World, and we took off from there,” says Kreamer. “In Chaos Theory, we're starting before Jurassic World: Dominion with the intent to head in that direction.”
Giving away spoilers, Kreamer notes, “Brooklynn, working with the Broker undercover, decides she's ready to go back with her friends, but then discovers the Broker is working with Biosyn, a genetics company similar to InGen and Mantah Corp. So, she decides to stay with the Broker Santos a while longer to try to find a way to stop her.”
Of course, that’s right when Brooklynn unintentionally reunites with her camp fam.
“Brooklyn's death shattered the group at the beginning,” says Kreamer. “Now, the fact that she's alive and seems to have turned her back on them, could have grave consequences. Not everybody's going to be feeling the same way about it.”
Victoria Davis is a full-time, freelance journalist and part-time Otaku with an affinity for all things anime. She's reported on numerous stories from activist news to entertainment. Find more about her work at victoriadavisdepiction.com.
