With the monstrous box office success of Jurassic World, which has earned over $1.6 billion worldwide, the franchise is more popular than ever. It may surprise some fans to learn that, after the initial success of Jurassic Park, Universal Cartoon Studios was developing an animated TV series, but, surprisingly, it never got off the ground. Concept artist William Stout has posted a number of his own illustrations from the proposed series on his official website, with all of these pieces available for purchase. FromDirectorStevenSpielberg.tumblr.com also discovered a post from 2014, where the artist spoke about the trailer for the series, and why it never came to pass.

"Although I own a copy, I don't think this trailer is available anywhere. Upon the success of Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park movie, all kinds of ancillary projects abounded: toys, games, novelties, apparel, etc. Towards the end of all of this merchandising I got a call from artist Will Meugniot, asking if I'd be interested in designing a Jurassic Park animated series. This was not going to be a kiddy show (although kids of all ages, including myself, could enjoy it). They wanted the show to be a mature prime time series with top writers and state-of-the-art television animation augmented with quite a bit of CG animation. Universal Cartoon Studios wanted a "graphic novel look" to the series."

William Stout's illustrations showcase a number of the main Jurassic Park characters such as Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Dr. Ellie Satler (Laura Dern), Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), Tim (Joseph Mazzello) and Lex (Ariana Richards). He also has illustrations featuring dinosaurs such as the mosasaur, plesiosaur, pterodactyl and young hypsilophodon baby dinosaurs. Here's what the artist had to say about why the series never saw the light of day.

"I came in, showed my portfolio and was hired. We made a trailer to communicate the look and feel of the series, also showing how we would combine computer animation with traditional animation. All we needed was Spielberg's approval. I heard through the grapevine that he never bothered to watch what we had done. By that time the word was out that he was burnt out on Jurassic Park merchandising and all of the film's commercial exploitation. So, it never got made. Too bad."

If you're interested in purchasing these pieces, you can visit WilliamStout.com/Journal for more information, and to check out the rest of the illustrations. Would you have liked to seen a Jurassic Park animated TV series on the small screen in the mid-1990s? Let us know what you think after checking out these images.

Universal planned an animated Jurassic Park series in 93 - and here's some awesome concept art http://t.co/d7rOtmX2ghpic.twitter.com/dfB0ZDgk2I — Paul Bullock (@apaulbullock) August 19, 2015

There was once a 'Jurassic Park' animated TV series in the works, and this is the ... - http://t.co/s310XXTGErpic.twitter.com/e1hZTGmHlq — Hypable.com (@Hypable) August 20, 2015