Jeff Goldblum Says He, Sam Neill and Laura Dern 'Fell Back into Step' in Jurassic World Dominion

Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill and Laura Dern

Almost 30 years have passed since Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum first set foot on Isla Nublar, but some things never change.

"We totally fell back into step," Goldblum, 69, tells PEOPLE of his costars, whom he reunites with onscreen in the upcoming Jurassic World Dominion. They first all appeared together in 1993's Jurassic Park, the kickoff film to the dinosaur franchise.

The actor spoke with PEOPLE amid the opening of N.Y.C.'s new RiseNY attraction, part of which he narrates, and said he had a "delightful" time working on the newest Jurassic movie with Neill, 74, and Dern, 55 — whom he calls "two of the great human beings on this planet."

"We had such a close experience on the first one, and they're of course two of the greatest actors of our time in the world. And so I loved it," Goldblum adds. "We've stayed in touch over the years, but that was so exciting."

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Bryan Bedder/Getty Jeff Goldblum

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Goldblum's comments come after Dern spoke to PEOPLE in May 2021 about returning to her role as Dr. Ellie Sattler alongside her original costars Neill (Dr. Alan Grant) and Goldblum (Dr. Ian Malcolm).

While she couldn't divulge much about the plot at the time, she teased of Ellie's role, "Saving butts might be involved" — though she "won't say whose."

"I can say that it was incredible to be back together," she added. "It was an amazing thing to join my original cast members and go down memory lane, from that experience in the beginning of a franchise through the whole course of these films together with all the key cast members who have been working on these movies, as well as [director] Colin Trevorrow and Steven Spielberg, who is like family to me."

Trevorrow, 45, previously said Goldblum, Dern and Neill will "have equal screen time to [Dominion leads] Chris [Pratt] and Bryce [Dallas Howard]," who starred in Jurassic World (2015) and 2018's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. (Goldblum appeared briefly in the latter.)

Shooting Dominion was also somewhat of a "whole family" affair for Goldblum, who brought along wife Emilie and their sons River, 6, and Charlie, 7, to the U.K., where the movie was filmed.

"They met the people working on, painting, sculpting and doing the mechanics of [the dinosaurs]," the actor tells PEOPLE of his "excited" boys. "They worked a couple of things, pushed a couple of buttons."

And while he and Emilie have "kept them from screen time mostly," Goldblum says Dominion might just be a big exception for River and Charlie.

"They have not been in a movie theater really. ... I know it's going to be scary. And I know it's a case-by-case basis, but I showed them Jurassic Park already," he says. "And the second one, Lost World, on TV. They were okay. So I think we might go to the movie theaters for the first time and show them this movie."

Jurassic World Dominion roars into theaters June 10.