Before Chris Pratt became the lead of the Jurassic World trilogy, Josh Brolin was considered for Owen Grady, with 2013 reports claiming he was in “early talks” for the role prior. Ahead of the dinosaur blockbusters wrapping up this summer with the release of Jurassic World: Dominion, Brolin is getting honest about why he’s “very happy” that he stepped away from the big opportunity.
When he received the opportunity for the Colin Trevorrow-directed dino adventure, Josh Brolin soon to a realization. In his words:
Jurassic World, with all respect to Steven [Spielberg], I could not picture me doing it. I could not picture me being that guy. And I’m very, very happy based on my decision of what Chris [Pratt] does with it, because I think Chris is the right guy.
Josh Brolin spoke about his brush with Jurassic World while on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. The actor would later work with Chris Pratt directly in the Avengers movies as theThanos to Pratt’s Starlord. The actor continued:
When I saw Chris in Guardians of the Galaxy, because I knew him a little bit before that, I was like, ‘What?!’ I mean, we all were. I even said it to him kind of embarrassingly when I saw him at a party once. I was like, ‘Dude, what the fuck?!’ It was embarrassing. Because I get really excited about other people doing well, it doesn’t just have to be me. So yeah, I think I knew from a big-picture standpoint that somebody else would do a much better job than me.
If you can remember, prior to Guardians of the Galaxy, Chris Pratt was best known for his role in Parks and Recreation. For the Marvel flick, he lost 60 pounds and transformed into the action star he is today. Following the insane success of Marvel Studios’ sci-fi franchise, Pratt continued an incredible streak with Jurassic World, which became a huge hit as well.
As Josh Brolin shared, he was just as amazed as the rest of us about what Pratt did with Guardians of the Galaxy, and he was excited to see the actor take on the role of Owen Grady and do a “much better job” than him. While some are probably curious as to how Brolin would have been in the role, it sounds like the actor has no regrets about having the movie franchise pass him by.
In the same interview, the Oscar nominee did show some wistfulness about losing out to Ben Affleck when it came to Zack Snyder’s Batman. The actor said the role was “interesting” to him and the decision came down to Snyder rather than him turning it down. Even though he was not part of these two massive films, he did get to play Marvel’s biggest villain yet in Thanos (who may or may not be returning). The actor also got to play Cable in Deadpool 2 and Gurney Halleck in the Dune movies. (Yes, he’s still bummed about Denis Villeneuve’s Oscar snub like the rest of us). So all in all, I’d say Josh Brolin has done quite well without a Jurassic role.
The Jurassic World franchise is set to return and round out its trilogy and honor the original Steven Speilberg movie this summer. Jurassic World: Dominion will see Chris Pratt unite with Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill and Laura Dern as dinos are unleashed all across Earth. The upcoming movie release hits theaters on June 10.