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Dr. Henry Wu is a fictional character in the Jurassic Park franchise. He is introduced in Michael Crichton's 1990 novel Jurassic Park, which began the franchise. He also appears briefly in the novel's 1993 film adaptation, and plays a larger role in the Jurassic World film trilogy. Dr. Wu is the lead geneticist for the dinosaur theme parks Jurassic Park and Jurassic World, overseeing the de-extinction of dinosaurs through genetic engineering. He is killed by a Velociraptor in the novel, but survives throughout the film series, in which he is portrayed by actor BD Wong. Although Wu is a supporting character in the novel, he has a drastically reduced role in the film adaptation, directed by Steven Spielberg. Wong and Wu are both Asian-American, and the actor believed that the role was reduced, to his disappointment, because of "racial exclusion in Hollywood".
Wong was skeptical that he would ever reprise the role, but eventually did so for the fourth film in the franchise, Jurassic World. It was directed by Colin Trevorrow, who co-wrote the script with Derek Connolly. The writers viewed Wu as a logical character to return, considering his role in recreating dinosaurs. Wong is the only actor from any of the previous films to appear in Jurassic World, and he and Trevorrow were happy to revisit the character after his minor role in the first film. Wong reprised the role again for the sequels, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) and Jurassic World Dominion (2022), which were also co-written by Trevorrow.
In the Jurassic World trilogy, Wu secretly creates weaponized hybrid dinosaurs at the behest of others, although the animals later escape and wreak havoc. In Dominion, he secretly engineers giant locusts for his employer, Biosyn, which unleashes the insects to consume rival crops in a plot to control the world food supply. The character undergoes a redemption when he expresses regret for his actions and eventually stops the locust outbreak. Wu is sometimes considered a villain in the Jurassic World films, although Wong believes the character is misunderstood, stating that his research is well intentioned and driven by the demands of others.
Aside from the films, Wong also reprised the role for the video games Jurassic World Evolution (2018) and Jurassic World Aftermath (2020), as well as two theme park attractions, Jurassic World: The Ride and VelociCoaster.
Fictional background[]
Dr. Henry Wu is the chief geneticist at Jurassic Park, a theme park featuring genetically engineered dinosaurs on the fictional island of Isla Nublar. Wu was recruited by the park's owner, John Hammond, to bring dinosaurs back from extinction for use as attractions.
Novels[]
Jurassic Park[]
In the novel, Wu was a student of geneticist Norman Atherton, who was Hammond's partner in the Jurassic Park project. After Atherton died of cancer, Wu was personally recruited by Hammond to join the project. Wu is eager to make his mark in the science world, and Hammond gives him an opportunity to do so, offering him a $50 million budget to create living dinosaurs within five years. Wu joins Hammond's company, InGen, and is ultimately successful in his task.
On Isla Nublar, Wu provides a tour of the theme park's laboratory facilities to a group of visitors, which includes Dr. Alan Grant, Dr. Ellie Sattler, and Dr. Ian Malcolm. He also answers their questions about the recreation of the dinosaurs. Wu had used the DNA of other animals, including frogs, to fill in gaps in the dinosaur genomes. He often questions how accurate the dinosaurs are compared to their prehistoric counterparts.
With Jurassic Park scheduled to open the following year, Wu finds his influence waning, as Hammond is increasingly unwilling to listen to his suggestions. Wu proposes genetically altering future dinosaurs to accommodate the public's perception of them as slow-moving animals. This would also make them easier to manage, with Wu noting that many early assumptions about the behavior and biology of the animals had been proven wrong once they were brought back to life. However, Hammond dismisses the idea, stating that such alterations would eliminate authenticity in the animals. Wu responds: "But they're not real now. That's what I'm trying to tell you. There isn't any reality here".
Multiple measures are in place to prevent dinosaur breeding at Jurassic Park; this includes engineering all the animals as female. However, it is later discovered that the use of frog DNA allows them to change sex, making reproduction possible. According to the novel, Wu privately considers the breeding ability a "tremendous validation" of his work, because it implies that he had "put all the pieces together correctly", creating "an animal millions of years old, with such precision that the creature could even reproduce itself".
Several dinosaurs eventually break out of their enclosures due to the actions of Dennis Nedry, a disgruntled park employee who temporarily shuts down security features in order to steal dinosaur embryos. Wu is killed during a Velociraptor assault on the park's hotel, when a raptor jumps onto him from the roof and guts him. Wu's intestines are consumed by the raptor as he struggles, and fails, to fight it off.
Wu is mentioned indirectly in Michael Crichton's sequel novel, The Lost World, when Malcolm discovers old InGen documents addressed to "H. Wu" and a picture of a "bespectacled Chinese man in a white lab coat", both found on Isla Sorna.
Films[]
Jurassic Park[]
Wu has a greatly reduced role in the first film, appearing in only one scene at the park's laboratory. As in the novel, he answers some questions from Grant, Sattler and Malcolm about the dinosaurs. Prior to that point, much of the dinosaur cloning process is already explained by a new character, Mr. DNA. After the laboratory discussion, Wu is not seen again and his whereabouts are not specified.
Jurassic World[]
Set 22 years after the events of the first film, Jurassic World features an operational dinosaur theme park on Isla Nublar, with Wu again working as lead geneticist. Prior to the events of the film, Wu was tasked by Jurassic World owner Simon Masrani with creating a new attraction to boost park attendance. He creates a genetically modified hybrid dinosaur, Indominus rex, by using the genome of a Tyrannosaurus rex as a template and combining it with genetics of a Velociraptor and other animals.
After the Indominus escapes, Wu declines to specify the animal's genetic make-up, stating that he is not at liberty to reveal such information. When Masrani informs Wu of the Indominus's ability to camouflage and to regulate its body temperature, Wu relents and reveals that the animal includes tree frog and cuttlefish DNA, allowing it to do such things. Outraged, Masrani orders Wu to shut down his operations, but Wu reminds him that the geneticists have always used the DNA of other animals to fill gaps in the dinosaurs' genomes. Wu further states that many of the dinosaurs would look "quite different" if their genetic codes were pure. Wu also says that the park exists because of him, stating further, "If I don't innovate, somebody else will". Wu is later revealed to have been secretly working with InGen Security head Hoskins to create the Indominus as a weapon. Hoskins has Wu flown from the island to an unknown location along with dinosaur embryos, thus protecting his research.
A viral marketing website for the fictional Masrani Global Corporation was launched to promote Jurassic World and provide backstory. According to the website, Dr. Wu continued his work on DNA after the events of Jurassic Park, and created the Wu Flower using the DNA of different plants. Simon Masrani subsequently took over InGen and promoted Wu.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom[]
Wu is now working for Eli Mills and remains passionate about his genetic work. He has created another weaponized hybrid dinosaur, the Indoraptor, using a Velociraptor genome and combining it with the DNA of his earlier Indominus rex hybrid. It is also revealed that Wu personally designed Blue, a Velociraptor at Jurassic World. The Indoraptor is a prototype lacking obedience, and Wu needs Blue's DNA to create an improved version, with Blue also acting as a surrogate mother.
Later, Mills allows the Indoraptor to be auctioned at a black-market sale, despite Wu's protests that it is an early prototype. He argues that rival scientists will go on to make their own version of the animal. Later in the film, Franklin Webb drugs Wu to subdue him, and Wu is dragged away to safety by one of Mills's mercenaries.
Jurassic World Dominion[]
Wu is now under the employ of Biosyn. On behalf of CEO Lewis Dodgson, Wu has secretly engineered giant hybrid locusts using Cretaceous arthropod DNA to eliminate the crops of rival companies. However, the scheme spiraled out of control when the insects begin rapidly reproducing, threatening to lead investigators back to Biosyn. Wu now regrets his actions. At his suggestion, Biosyn kidnaps human clone Maisie Lockwood and Blue's baby, Beta, so he can study their altered DNA, believing this to be the solution to the locust outbreak. Wu explains that he was involved with Maisie's late mother, Charlotte Lockwood, from whom Maisie was cloned. Charlotte lived with the scientists on Isla Sorna during the 1980s, and later became a colleague of Wu, who has struggled to replicate her research on the alteration of DNA.
As Biosyn is evacuated due to a forest fire, Wu encounters numerous characters from previous films, including Grant, Sattler, and Malcolm. Wu begs to be rescued with the survivors despite their reluctance, but Maisie persuades them to let him join as she will voluntarily help him in his research. Later, Wu releases a modified locust that carries a pathogen he discovered while studying Maisie and Beta's DNA, successfully eradicating the locust outbreak and gaining redemption from his misdeeds. Wu is stated in a news report to have given credit for the discovery to Charlotte.
Other appearances[]
Wu appears in the animated miniseries Lego Jurassic World: Legend of Isla Nublar (2019), set prior to the events of Jurassic World. In the series, Wu carries out research to create hybrid dinosaurs.
Wu makes appearances in the first and third season of the animated television series Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous (2020–2022). Brooklynn and Sammy, two of the campers stranded on Isla Nublar following the Indominus rex incident, discover a secret lab where Wu had created another hybrid known as the Scorpios rex, one that was so dangerous that Wu was ordered to destroy it. However, he instead placed the Scorpios rex in cryogenic stasis where it had escaped from at the end of season two. Brooklynn and Sammy watch several video recordings by Wu on the creature, including one where it attacks him. He later comes to the island himself with the team that recovers the Indominus bone at the beginning of Fallen Kingdom. Wu searches for his laptop with data on the Scorpios rex and encounters the campers, who reveal that they have managed to kill the creature. The laptop is ultimately destroyed, but Wu is satisfied with the retrieval of the Indominus bone.
He also appears in Secrets of Dr. Wu, a downloadable content (DLC) pack released for the 2018 game Jurassic World Evolution. In it, players help Wu create various hybrid dinosaurs. Audio recordings of Wu are also heard in the 2020 game Jurassic World Aftermath.
Wu is also present at two theme park attractions, Jurassic World: The Ride and VelociCoaster, providing guests with information about the dinosaurs encountered during the rides.