Sam Neill Says Jurassic Park‘s Alan Grant is Probably Dead … or An Accountant

Jurassic World was very deliberate in its attempt to establish a new cast of characters for the series to follow from now on, only bringing back one minor character from the original trilogy: B.D. Wong’s Dr. Wu.

And while people are holding out hope for Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm, Laura Dern’s Ellie Sattler and Sam Neill’s Alan Grant to square off against dinosaurs again, at least Neill is confident that Grant’s days of running from dinos are done.

Speaking to /Film, Neill said of Grant’s fate:

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 … I think that’s what’s happened to Alan. Either that or he’s dead.

Honestly, as much as Grant seems to love dinosaurs in the original Jurassic Park, running for your life from the things on two separate occasions might destroy your passion for them. But the idea that Grant has died is interesting. Neill goes on to say:

How do you recover from all of that stuff? I don’t think therapists are trained to deal with post-dino stuff. No. I don’t think you get over it. Accountancy would be one way. No one can find Grant. He’s disappeared. Someone found his hat. His hat was floating on the Hudson river, but that was the last ever heard of him.

Of course, none of this is canon, just an actor’s thoughts on his beloved character. Neill said, regarding Jurassic World 2, “The call hasn’t come,” which isn’t exactly positive, but he doesn’t rule out his own interest in reappearing. And even if Neill does appear in the sequel, it’s not likely he’d reveal it in an interview like this, especially since the movie is still in pre-production.

If you’re jonesing for a Jurassic Park reunion though, you might be able to get your kicks from the forthcoming Thor: Ragnarok. Whether the two will cross paths is unknown, but Goldblum is playing one of the film’s villains and Neill was on the movie’s set for a few days in some mysterious, undisclosed role, so keep your fingers crossed.