Jeff Goldblum is almost certainly a National Treasure at this point. The guy is a singular talent, imbuing each of his characters with a signature touch that is, for lack of a better word, “Goldblum-y.” And while the actor’s had some terrific turns over the years, he’s got some even more exciting stuff on the horizon as he dives back into blockbuster territory with one brand new character and one returning favorite.

The latter, of course, is Dr. Ian Malcolm, for which Goldblum will be reprising his role in the upcoming sequel Jurassic World 2. This offers the first major piece of connective tissue from this new franchise to the original one, as Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World mostly kept its focus on building out new characters and scenarios. It’s unclear how Goldblum’s character fits into Jurassic World 2, which has The Impossible and A Monster Calls filmmaker J.A. Bayona at the helm, but Goldblum tells EW he’s excited about the return:

“Off I go in a few weeks to London, where they’ve been hard at work, and I’ll try to contribute something to the plate of dino-entertainment. I like my character. I think my character is a saucy, sassy man of some integrity and deep thinking. And of course, that whole world continues to be popular, slam-bang, top entertainment. I talked to the director, J.A. Bayona, over the phone. I enjoyed his movie The Impossible with Naomi Watts, and he’s something else. I didn’t realize he was a good friend of a friend of mine, a director I worked with a while ago in Spain named Fernando Trueba, who’s just fantastic. Knowing that the two of them are brethren and brotherly in their friendship makes me feel very good, too.”

But Goldblum says that even though this is very much a franchise film, his conversations with Bayona have focused on more high-minded issues:

“Even though some might say it’s popcorn-y entertainment (top-notch, of course), in our conversation he was very focused on the serious issues of greed as it oftentimes comes up in those movies, and the marvels of science and reason and the very fascinating point at which our species finds itself both in real life and in this imaginary world too. I’m very interested in that myself, so I’m looking forward to this. I’ve got a few things to do. I’m nothing if not conscientious, so I’m enjoying working on it every day.”

First up, however, we’ll see Goldblum as the comics characters Grandmaster in Marvel Studios’ third film of 2017 this November, Thor: Ragnarok. And the actor was thrilled to get to share the screen with Cate Blanchett and Chris Hemsworth:

“I enjoyed it. I didn’t have scenes with Cate Blanchett, but she was in The Life Aquatic, of course, so we’d been in touch, and I’ve seen her since. I just adore her, so it was great to be in another movie with her, even just by association. The other Hemsworth brother, that now makes two for me, and he couldn’t have been sweeter or more down-to-earth, like the whole family.”

Goldblum says the real draw of the film was actually director Taika Waititi, who he assessed in the most Jeff Goldblum way possible:

What I particularly loved is the director, Taika Waititi. He really got me involved in this because I’m a fan of his, from Flight of the Conchords and all his movies, not only Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Boy but especially What We Do In the Shadows. When we first talked, he said, “I want you to do your particular version of this character without being comic-y or grandiloquent. I think you should do something that’s in your creative family tree. And also improvise.” He was very interested in improvisation. We came to all those scenes and riffed enjoyably for the time we had. I don’t know what’s gonna come out in the mix because we gave him a whole bunch of different choices, I’ll tell you that. He’s great. Taika Waititi gets 10 Goldblums out of a possible 10 Goldblums.”

Jeff Goldblum, ladies and gentlemen.