The world needs more dinosaur movies. But in order to have more dinosaur movies, we need actors to be chased around and occasionally eaten by dinosaurs. So let us all give heartfelt thanks to Ty Simpkins, the young thespian who has graciously (according to Deadline) volunteered to put himself in dinosaur-shaped harm’s way in Jurassic World. Of course, the dinosaurs aren’t real. And it’s not particularly likely that a Jurassic World will end with its lead child actor mauled to pieces by prehistoric beasts. Also, starring in Jurassic World is likely to give Simpkins’ career a generous boost, so it’s not really so selfless a gesture to begin with.
And for an actor who’s only twelve years old, Simpkins already has a terrifyingly great filmography going. Starting off with War of the Worlds and Revolutionary Road, audiences might know him better as either the kid from the Insidious movies or the kid who snarkily back-and-forthed with Tony Stark in Iron Man 3. The latter definitely ups my anticipation of Jurassic World — Simpkins had real chemistry with Robert Downey Jr., and one can assume he’ll have the same chemistry with the 40-foot reptiles trying to consume him for sustenance. Plus, this news seems to imply that Jurassic World will continue the trend of a vague family unit at the heart of a Jurassic Park film. For all we know, the not-confirmed-but-still-likely-to-star Bryce Dallas Howard might be a part of that same family unit.
