In recent years, fans have made a connection between blockbuster movie releases and accompanying merchandise, and what they've noticed is that studios and companies tend to release merch prematurely. This often leads to spoilers going out, causing audiences to get wind of big reveals before intended. Such was the case with Captain America: Civil War. The Lego sets for that film revealed Scott Lang's transformation into Giant-Man, which wasn't integral to the plot, although it did count as one of the movie's highlights. Marvel has gotten better at concealing key plot points since then, not counting Iron Man's Bleeding Edge armor in Avengers: Infinity War.
Universal Pictures is avoiding such a pitfall altogether with its newest dinosaur-laden flick, Jurassic World: Rebirth. And the studio hasn't gone scorched earth on marketing or anything like that, but Universal is clearly monitoring which products are available to the public. The Lego reveals, for example, consists only of scenes shown in the trailers. Certain props in the toy sets haven't been shown to audiences, although they're insignificant compared to the storylines that Universal is attempting to keep under wraps.
For instance, Rebirth's mutant species have remained under the radar. Aside from Mattel releasing a single figure of the Distortus Rex, it's still a mystery to fans. The film's director gave interested viewers a bit of insight into the newest Rex's DNA composition, although nothing beyond that. In any case, Universal Pictures is thinking through its marketing strategies this time around.
Bear in mind that the Mattel figurine is an outlier. None of the current tie-in Lego sets for Rebirth contain scenes of the Distortus Rex. It's integral enough to the movie that marketing is featuring the species in other merchandise but has seemingly been left out of most companion merchandise; likely due to those scenes being major highlights from the film.
Similarly, other aberrations on the island have remained concealed, with the exception of teaser trailers showcasing Velociraptors brandishing pelican-like gular pouches. While they don't seem all that significant, considering their limited exposure, their absence from marketing materials feels deliberate.
The most plausible explanation is the variant raptors will confirm that InGen dumped its trash dinosaurs on said island—something Universal Pictures doesn't want getting out beforehand. Background information and the plot synopsis alluded to as much. Now, though, we have confirmation of such a thing transpiring. The question is, how many attempts did the corporation make before perfecting the genetic engineering process—one, two, three, four tries, or even a hundred?
Audiences can see that the Spinosaurus in Rebirth is a separate genus from the one in Jurassic Park 3, lending credence to the claims that InGen tried multiple times to perfect it. For all we know, Rebirth will feature other variations of the same creature. That's still debatable, although Universal's inclusion of aberrations means anything is on the table now.
Unfortunately for fans trying to ascertain plot spoilers from other merchandise—that may prove challenging. Because on top of a limited selection currently available, Mattel also included additional figures in their line of toys, that, while technically tie-ins, aren't movie-exclusive. That makes the task even more complicated since it's easy to mistake an attached toy for one that'll appear in the actual movie.
Jurassic World: Rebirth opens in theaters on July 2, 2025.