Daniel Kon[1] was a major antagonist in the Jurassic Park franchise, serving as the main antagonist of the Netflix series Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous. He served as the unseen overarching antagonist of Seasons 1-3, the overarching antagonist of Season 4, and the main antagonist of Season 5. He was also a minor character of Jurassic World: Chaos Theory Season 1, where he was killed by a claw to the head from an Atrociraptor.
He was the father of Kenji Kon and former President of Mantah Corp. After going to prison for 5 years, he lived in a halfway house for a year. He eventually sacrificed himself to save his son’s life.
Pre Camp Cretaceous[]
A photo of Daniel during his time at the White House.
Daniel is Kenji's father but barely spends time with his son, much to the sadness of the latter. After the fall of Jurassic World, Daniel became the President of Mantah Corp according to his own words, but later mentions and reveals that he gave his former employee Kash D. Langford the order to blackmail the family of Sammy Gutierrez, which happened before the fall of Jurassic World. This probably means that Daniel has been president of Mantah Corp for a much longer period of time than assumed without telling his son, or for that matter, anyone else.
Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous[]
Season 1[]
Kenji participates in Camp Cretaceous and is left stranded on Isla Nublar along with his campers after the Jurassic World Incident. Kenji reveals that his dad owns condos here, and also sadly states that his dad is barely around for him.
Season 2[]
Daniel is said to have changed the lock to his penthouse if Kenji continued to fail algebra. It turns out sometime before leaving Isla Nublar he did, showing that if his son didn't continue to academically prosper, then he wouldn't want to live with him.
Season 3[]
When the campers go to Kenji's dad's condominium, to find supplies to fix their boat, Kenji's dad is shown in photos. When Sammy asks Kenji where he is in these pictures, Kenji quickly changes the subject. Sammy and Yaz see a picture of him, his father, a mermaid, and an unidentifiable person next to them, that Kenji drew when he was 5. While Kenji initially brushes it off, he looks at it with some fondness after the two walk away.
Season 4[]
Daniel in Season 4
He is mentioned a few times, most notably by his employee Kash. He talks to Kash over the phone a few times. He eventually comes on the island. His name is revealed to be Daniel, as said by Kash. While telling Kash that Pierce the Kentrosaurus will be sent to a new biome as food, Darius overhears them and tries to stop them. After the Kentrosaurus is saved and the six campers are reunited with the Kentro and Dr. Mae Turner, a large group of BRAD-X's, Kash, and Daniel arrive. Daniel, however, is shocked to see Kenji. A confused Kenji says "Dad?", much to the shock of the other campers.
Season 5[]
Daniel is shocked and excited to see Kenji alive, and hugs him. A confused Kenji asks him why he is running Mantah Corp, to which Daniel says he took over after the fall of Jurassic World. The other campers and Mae tell him about Kash's actions, which causes him to angrily confront Kash and tells him that he was supposed to keep things up and running, not commit murder and that he gave Kash too much freedom. However, a furious Kash who accused him of sitting back and letting him do all the heavy work, betrays him by programming the BRAD-X's to turn on Daniel.
Daniel is able to override the BRAD-X’s and locks Kash up. He tells the kids that the world turned against dinosaurs and he needs to get them home secretly but it will take a week. He secretly freed Kash and forces Mae to work with him to finish the dinosaur control chips. After sabotaging Brooklynn so she can’t make her date with Kenji, he manipulates Kenji to his side, turning him against his friends. Likewise, he throws Kash aside in favor of Kenji, telling Kash to go away due to anger at his betrayal.
The kids destroy the control chips, causing the dinosaurs to attack the investors. Kash steals a remote control from the third one. Before he's able to kill his boss, the Velociraptors that acted as his guards suddenly turned on him and ate him as the chips in their head had been destroyed by the other campers without his knowledge of it. After the Spinosaurus almost kills Daniel, Kenji completely turns on his friends and the Kon’s lock up the other campers before heading to Nublar with Mae.
There they meet Lewis Dodgson, who shows them a list of dinosaurs he wants them to brainwash and give him. Although he tried to save Kenji from a rock slide, Daniel is ultimately affectionate to his son when he manages to earn him money and shows disappointment in him otherwise. After Mae points this out, along with Daniel breaking his promise not to brainwash Bumpy, makes Kenji completely turn against his dad. They leave the island while Mae escapes.
Upon returning to Mantah Corp Island, Kenji joins up with the other campers again. Daniel orders Hawkes and the mercenaries to find the kids and bring them him alive so they can find the password (which has been changed) to make the chips. After an intense battle between the dinosaurs that are brainwashed and the uncontrolled Mantah Corp Island dinosaurs, Daniel uses the Spinosaurus to defeat Big Eatie. The kids retreat, intending to make it to the boat.
Daniel and Hawkes corner Darius, asking for the password. Darius refuses and Daniel tells Hawkes to finish him. However, he stops when Kenji arrives. Kenji tells Daniel the password, asking Daniel to spare Darius. After Daniel enters it, he orders Hawkes to kill Darius anyways to tie up loose ends.
Before Hawkes manages to get the Spinosaurus to eat Darius, Big Eatie, who survived the earlier struggle, attacks and destroys the controller for the Spinosaurus’s control chip which sets it free. As Big Eatie begins to fight the Spinosaurus, Kenji scrambles to get Darius to safety as Hawkes gets eaten by Little Eatie, who sneaks up behind him. Seeing Hawkes getting devoured by Little Eatie, Daniel realizes he has lost the advantage and that he is now alone as he has no more dinosaurs to control. He hurries to take cover while the Eaties fight and chase off the Spinosaurus much to the happiness of Darius and Kenji.
Thinking the island is doomed, Daniel prepares to flee on a plane and tells Kenji to hurry aboard before someone discovers the truth about Daniel's actions toward the dinosaurs and the campers who will desecrate his name. permanently. Upset by this, Kenji tells his father that his friends are still on the island, but Daniel only thinks about protecting his name. Fully realizing that Daniel is all about business, Kenji criticizes him, claiming that he doesn't care about people. Kenji then asks his father if he even looked for him and if he ever meant anything to him. When Daniel tells him to get on the plane instead of answering, Kenji is heartbroken because he knows that means Daniel never looked for his son. Kenji walks away from his father, while Daniel tells him another time to get on the plane. Kenji refuses to leave his friends behind and calls them his real family. Although he appears briefly injured, Daniel soon boards the plane and flies away, unaware that the campers tricked him into leaving the island.
After the campers are rescued, Mae Turner contacts the authorities who arrest Daniel for his crimes which completely ruins his good reputation while Kenji gets adopted into Darius's family. Following Daniel's arrest, Kenji appears to inherit his fortune as Kenji is able to continue to fund the sanctuary.
Jurassic World: Chaos Theory[]
Season 1[]
After spending five years in prison, Daniel has been living in a halfway house for the past year and has taken up gardening as a new hobby.
Kenji and Darius visit Daniel to get answers about Brooklyn, who allegedly met with him. Daniel tries to be cordial with Kenji, but Kenji remains distrustful. During their conversation, Daniel gives Kenji an ultimatum: become the new CEO of Daniel’s company, or get no information about Brooklyn. Kenji reluctantly agrees but reconsiders when Daniel suggests the job will be easy. Saddened upon seeing his son plan to leave him behind for good, Daniel starts sharing what he knows about Brooklyn.
According to Daniel, Brooklyn approached him about dinosaurs illegally being where they shouldn’t, and the act of buying and selling them. He also quotes that she said, “I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty.” Although Kenji and Darius are skeptical, Daniel insists that Brooklyn seemed almost dangerous but he never imagined she would get herself killed.
Darius then notices an eerie silence in the area. Suddenly, they are ambushed by Tiger, one of the Atrociraptors. They run and find a guard's body who was responsible for guarding Daniel, partially visible, suggesting he is dead. Panthera appears, reinforcing this belief, and Ghost comes around the car.
As the Atrociraptors are about to attack Daniel, a whistle blows, stopping them. The Atrociraptor Handler with a whistle around her neck commands the raptors, who leave Daniel and then corner Kenji and Darius. Daniel distracts the raptors by tackling Tiger to the ground and holding her legs in place, urging Kenji and Darius to escape. He is pinned down by Ghost and Panthera and surrounded by the raptors. Accepting his fate, Daniel smiles at Kenji and tells him to "Run" before being killed and eaten by the Atrociraptors.
Later, Kenji and Darius find Brooklyn's secret apartment and discover a bag of cash in her closet. A note in Daniel’s handwriting indicates he gave her the money.
Personality[]
Daniel was a composed and business-oriented individual who prioritized his family name and his company above all else. This caused him to have a strained relationship with his son, Kenji, who constantly sought his attention and approval while Daniel focused solely on his work. Despite this, he did seem to truly care for his son, as shown when he reunited with him on Mantah Corp Island, when he chose to give him information on Brooklynn at his halfway home, and even sacrificed himself to save his son's life. Eventually he involved Kenji in his work in an effort to shape Kenji into a businessman like himself to continue their family legacy. He greatly valued hard work and regularly chastised Kenji for taking the easy way through life.
In regards to business he showed little to no qualms with who or how he conducted business, as shown how over his career he ran Mantah Corp, was an investor in Masrani and did business with Biosyn. Even after prison he seemingly continued to deal in black market activity.
In his personal life he showed interest in sailing and nautical activity which was evidenced by his office decorations and his owning of a yacht. He also showed great pride in his Japanese heritage as shown when he was disappointed in Kenji for not speaking their native tongue. After arriving at his halfway home he also developed a interest in gardening, cultivating plants that don't normally grow there.
Relationships[]
Kenji Kon[]
Daniel has never been there for his only son Kenji. Daniel argued the reason for his negligence was to “build a legacy” for Kenji to follow after. He wanted Kenji to take pride in their Japanese heritage but Kenji was upset that he always had to practice with Daniel being there.
After the fall of Jurassic World, Daniel had no interest in searching for his missing son, and even ignored the distress beacon the campers sent from Isla Nublar at the beginning of the second season, seemingly leaving Kenji and the campers for dead.
However, Daniel did show Kenji love from time to time but it was (usually) conditional love. He often manipulated his son into believing he wasn’t a bad guy. He did save his from the raptors and try to save him during the rock slide, as well as attempt to get his son to join him on the plane when he thought the island was going to explode, showing some moments of genuine protectiveness.
In Chaos Theory, however, he does try to build a relationship with Kenji upon seeing him again but fails. When Kenji nearly leaves him for good, Daniel offers to tell him about Brooklynn’s supposed death and begs his son to stay a little longer. In his final moments, Daniel proved that despite his previous behavior he truly did love his son, sacrificing himself so that Kenji could escape. His death and sacrifice left a lasting impact on Kenji.
Kash D. Langford[]
Mae Turner[]
Hawkes[]
Lewis Dodgson[]
Sammy Gutierrez[]
Trivia[]
- Daniel could be compared to the novel version of John Hammond as that version of Hammond also showed little care for his grandchildren Lex and Tim Murphy similar to how Daniel neglected his son Kenji.
- His death is similar to that of Udesky, as he was stabbed in the neck/back by the large sickle claw of a theropod.
- Daniel Kon could be compared to Janja from Disney's The Lion Guard, as both are voiced by Andrew Kishino, both are the main antagonists of their show, and both changed their alignment for a smaller role at some point although the difference is that Daniel died while Janja did not.
