Chris Pratt Rocks Out With Jimmy Buffett at ‘Jurassic World’ Premiere

Twenty-two years after the terrifying dinosaurs of Jurassic Park first made their way onto the big screen, they’re stomping back into theaters in Universal’s Jurassic World. Universal and Legendary celebrated with a mega-premiere — complete with a surprise performance by Jimmy Buffett — at the Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood on Tuesday night.

The stars of sequel, including Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Vincent D’Onofrio and director Colin Trevorrow walked the red carpet underneath a 90-ft. tarp displaying the franchise’s iconic, torch-flanked gateway and chatted with THR about their experiences stepping into the spotlight of the beloved series and what the reboot has in store for modern audiences.

“I think the idea of bringing it back is going to be great,” star Vincent D’Onofrio told THR. “I think it’s going to be unlike what anyone really thinks.”

“Any time you want to bring a franchise back, you want to mix in the new with the old,” said screenwriter Rick Jaffa. “You want to bring something fresh to it but you also want to please and excite the people who were fans of it before.”

After the red carpet, the stars screened the film at the Dolby Theatre, which was filled with boisterous applause and laughter from the audience. The star-studded premiere included plenty of celebrity guests in the audience, including Selma director Ava Duvernay, The LEGO Movie co-director Phil Lord, Fast & Furious franchise writer Chris Morgan, Pratt’s wife Anna Faris and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy.

Howard, who plays a hard-nosed, bottom-line capitalist who helps run the park, got some strong applause when her character gets in on the action.

“She’s a very new kind of character for the Jurassic franchise,” Howard told THR. “She’s corporate. In the beginning she kind of represents corporate greed and you think, ‘Okay, this one needs to get eaten by a dinosaur.’ But she goes through quite a transformation and change and ends up being quite heroic.”

The film’s young stars Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins play brothers in the movie. Their characters are the first the audience meets in the film. The brothers set out to visit the very successful dinosaur park, where Howard’s character (their aunt) works.

“You walk onto these sets, and they’ve been building these things for six months beforehand,” Robinson said of shooting the film. “It’s crazy, just surreal.”

“Just getting to see the sets and meet new people, it was amazing,” said Simpkins.

After the screening, the audience attended the afterparty in the Dolby Ballroom. The room had been transformed into a Jurassic Park-themed arena, covered in ferns and a faux-electric dinosaur fence. New Girl‘s Jake Johnson, who worked with Trevorrow on Safety Not Garaunteed, plays a control room operator in Jurassic World.

“I shot in the end, so every day was somebody’s last day,” Johnson said of his experience, which meant lots of cake. “I gained like 15 pounds shooting this movie.”

But it wasn’t all just sweet treats and tearful goodbyes for Johnson. “Because I’m in the control room I’m always sitting and people have to enter and everyday a new incredible actor would enter. It was just a surreal experience.”

At the afterparty, Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band took to the stage, performing “Brown Eyed Girl” and several other popular songs. While performing “Margaritaville,” the film’s star, Chris Pratt, joined them onstage to sing along while producer Frank Marshall played guitar. Pratt told the crowd that his performance was not at all planned, and he made a special shout-out to his talented co-stars.

Buffet, who is a longtime friend of Marshall, wrapped up his set with an encore performance of “Fins.”

Jurassic World opens nationwide on June 12.