Dead Boy Detectives star joins the cast of new Jurassic World movie

Perhaps the only thing scarier than a dinosaur is a demon! We'll find out for sure as an actor who played the latter is joining the cast of a movie with plenty of the former. If you've been keeping up with the pop-culture news in recent months, you'll know that the movie I'm referring to is the next installment in the Jurassic World franchise.

Fans of the Universal franchise were stunned when it was revealed that a new film was in the works, but they were even more stunned by the reveal that it was set for release as early as summer 2025. It's not really that surprising that it's being fast-tracked given that all three films in the Jurassic World trilogy crossed $1 billion at the box office, but to go from no news to that news so quickly did catch us all off-guard.

Universal has been putting together quite the cast for the film and now we have another familiar face joining the fray.

Dead Boy Detectives' David Iacono joins Jurassic World 4

As revealed by The Hollywood Reporter, David Iacono has joined the cast of Universal's new Jurassic World movie. No details about the character he is playing have been revealed as of yet, but that pretty much lines up with what we know about the movie itself as the studio has been remaining tight-lipped about all details on its central storyline.

Iacono has become a regular of television over the past few years, with his most notable role being the lovable "Cam Cameron" in Amazon Prime Video's insanely popular The Summer I Turned Pretty. Comic book fans will likely recognize him from Netflix's Dead Boy Detectives, in which he played a significantly less lovable role; convincingly bringing David the Demon to life.

David appeared regularly throughout the first season of the show, haunting Crystal Palace after he possessed her. Crystal then teamed up with the Dead Boy Detectives in a bid to exorcise him from her once and for all.

The Netflix series has amassed quite the following since its premiere on April 25, performing well in its first few weeks of release. While the streamer has yet to renew the series, there is scope for Iacono's character to return for a second season if they greenlight it. And needless to say the vocal fans of DC's "little-show-that-could" would be thrilled to see that.

A star-studded cast for the next Jurassic World movie

David Iacono is just the most recent in a long line of recognizable actors set to take on the dinosaurs in the upcoming Jurassic World movie. Since finding its new director in Godzilla's Gareth Edwards, Universal has ramped up the casting process, with a number of announcements revealing who audiences can expect to see in the film.

The big one was that Hollywood veteran and Marvel star Scarlett Johansson would be leading this new generation of dino survivors, but that was only the beginning. The Black Widow star will be joined by Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali, Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey, The Lincoln Lawyer's Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Rupert Friend, Luna Blaise, and now David Iacono.

It's not surprising that Universal is going for a star-studded cast. This is a pivotal moment for the Jurassic franchise, as it essentially relaunches the story from scratch. The Jurassic World movies were indeed a new chapter in the legendary film saga, but they were also legacy sequels to the original Jurassic Park, with original cast members Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum all returning for the final installment Jurassic World Dominion in 2022. With their characters' stories - and the story of the characters played by Jurassic World leads Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt - all wrapped up, the seventh film will act as something of a reboot, taking the franchise into new territory.

The Jurassic Park franchise is a Hollywood heavyweight, with four of its installments surpassing the $1 billion mark at the box office. Dominion did move a little slower than the previous two Jurassic World movies, which could have been down to the negative response it received from critics.

With that in mind, letting it serve as the end of that arc and starting afresh seems like the right way to go. And the saga has recruited franchise veteran David Koepp (who co-penned Jurassic Park with Michael Crichton as well as sequel The Lost World) to bring it to life.

There is still plenty of life in the franchise as a whole, with Netflix's animated series Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous and Chaos Theory performing well with younger audiences, and a new horror-laced survival video game on the horizon. It's only fitting that it find its way back to the big screen too.

Jurassic World 4 (a.k.a. Jurassic Park 7) is set to begin production in London this summer, gearing up for a theatrical release next summer.

The park reopens on July 2, 2025.