'Jurassic World 2' news: Sam Neill explains his character's absence

Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant in "Jurassic Park"Universal Studios

"Jurassic World" was one of the biggest hits of 2015, but the film only featured one character from the original trilogy, Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong). Fans have been clamoring for the return of Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) or Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), and now, Sam Neill has explained why he is not going to be in "Jurassic World 2."

Speaking to ShortList, Neill gave two possible futures for Alan Grant following the events of "Jurassic Park III," the last film where Grant was the main lead and both outcomes confirm that he is not going to be in the upcoming "Jurassic World 2."

"I think the problem is that no one knows where Alan Grant is anymore. He's retired from paleontology. He's sick to death of dinosaurs and running. He's not quite as fleet of foot as he was, and he's now retired to Dayton, Ohio, and has a very successful accountancy business," he said, and then he added, "I think that's what's happened to Alan. Either that or he's dead."

It is pointed out in a report from Screen Rant that the actor was simply joking about the fate of Grant, but this does confirm that the character is not going to appear in the upcoming sequel. When he was asked if he got a call from the studios, he firmly said he hasn't, further confirming that he has no involvement in the movie.

However, the report does state that the theory of Grant retiring does make sense in the world that "Jurassic World" built since there would be no further use of this specialty now that, in the movie, dinosaurs have been around for several years.

As a matter of fact, Chris Pratt's character was an animal expert who studied the Velociraptors life and even trained them, going above and beyond what a paleontologist would be able to learn with just the bones.

"Jurassic World 2" is scheduled to premiere on June 22, 2018.