Jeff Goldblum has revealed the Ian Malcolm character was almost cut out of the script for Jurassic Park – until he lobbied for the role to stay.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park finds Malcolm manipulated into visiting the original island where the dinosaurs were cloned, and again running into – and often away from – trouble.
While it could be argued the Malcolm character could be removed from the script without having much impact on the story, Jurassic Park is a lot more fun because of his inclusion.
Malcolm was also such a popular character among fans of the book that author Michael Crichton brought him back for The Lost World book – despite the character having been declared dead in the original book.