The Ankylosaurus is filmmaker Colin Trevorrow’s favorite dinosaur. In retrospect that shouldn’t be a surprise considering the armored herbivore makes a major appearance in Jurassic World, both that creature and Trevorrow’s first Jurassic Park movie. But Trevorrow made his adoration for Ankylosaurus clear during a discussion about the new Netflix animated series, Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, earlier this week. Which, as it just so happens, features a baby Ankylosaurus that the kids in the show affectionately name Bumpy.
“We thought it’d be cool [for] a character like Ben to have this sort of bond and epiphany,” Kreamer told us about the origins of adding Bumpy to the series. “I think originally in [creator Zack Stentz’s] version, Bumpy was not an Ankylosaurus, but I think somewhere along the line, we stumbled upon the idea of ‘what if that was the herd that Bumpy was released into?’ The one that the Indominus attacked.”
Kreamer said this in reference to the Ankylosaurses’ big scene in 2015’s Jurasisc World. In that movie, two characters take a Gyrosphere outside of the tourist-friendly paddock that features, among other dinosaurs, Triceratops and Stegosauruses. Once in the wild, they stumble upon a herd of Ankylosauruses, who are then promptly attacked by the Indominus Rex, leaving a bloody trail in her wake.
“I think that was the connective tissue that we were looking at the time,” Kreamer continued, “and we just thought narratively that would be super-cool to come upon the Gyrosphere and the Ankylosaurus, and the aftermath of the attack, and here we’re back with Bumpy.”
For Trevorrow, Bumpy represents hope in the series, and the hope the kids at its center cannot only survive but save the world they live in.
“Ankylosaurus is my favorite dinosaur,” Trevorrow said. “I think it’s a beautifully animated creature from the ground up, so well done.” Both executive producers can also assure fans that even though Ben and Bumpy are currently separated from the rest of the group, we will see more of Bumpy if there is a Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous Season 2.
“We all loved Bumpy before [the show] went out there,” Kreamer said, “and to see the adoration and the Baby Yoda like love that Bumpy’s been getting has been incredibly gratifying. So yeah, if we went forward, Bumpy is one of our gang. So I imagine we will see more of Bumpy.”
This should be a relief to fans, as should Kreamer and Trevorrow’s other hints for season 2 and how, if Camp Cretaceous is fully embraced by viewers, we could see elements of the animated series “weave” together with the movies down the road. You can find more of that conversation here.
Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous is now streaming on Netflix.