In Fallen Kingdom, she is portrayed initially as the granddaughter of Benjamin Lockwood, though it is revealed later in the film that he actually cloned her from his deceased daughter.

Co-writer Colin Trevorrow introduced human cloning to the film series to explore the full effects of genetic power.

As her guardian, Mills confronts Owen and Claire, and demands that Maisie stay with him when he suspects that they want to take care of her.

In the Sierra Nevada, Maisie has lived in seclusion with Owen and Claire, who worry that she will be kidnapped for research purposes if she leaves home.

Maisie, now 14 years old, has become rebellious over living in isolation and takes secret bicycle trips to town to explore society without her parents' knowledge, often concealing her face with her hoodie and not staying in one place too long to avoid discovery.

Maisie escapes containment and meets Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Ellie Sattler, who are at Biosyn investigating the locust incidents.

He included the concept of human cloning in an effort to explore the full effects that genetic power could have in the Jurassic Park film universe.

[9] Executive producer Steven Spielberg supported the human cloning concept and was excited about the questions it could raise in the film's sequel, while Trevorrow was nervous about whether audiences would accept such an idea.

A. Bayona, the human cloning aspect was inspired by late author Michael Crichton, who wrote the novel Jurassic Park (1990) and its sequel The Lost World (1995).

After reciting lines, Trevorrow was impressed with Trill's performance and decided to cast her as Charlotte, scrapping the digital aging idea.

[17][18] Graeme McMillan, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, found that the introduction of Benjamin and Maisie Lockwood "immediately makes the rest of the Jurassic franchise seem dull by comparison.

[19] Ben Kuchera of Polygon speculated that Maisie had dinosaur DNA and was disappointed with the eventual plot twist that she is a human clone, finding it underdeveloped.

Referring to the dinosaur theory and clone reveal, Kuchera wrote that the film "spends a lot of its running time setting up what would have been one of the most ridiculous plot twists possible, and then backs away from it at the last moment to instead deliver something that seems to even bore the characters in the movie".

[22] Referring to her role in Dominion, Nick Bartlett of /Film wrote: "As the person who released the dinosaurs into the world, you would think she would have an interesting arc in this film, potentially grappling with her conscience over the consequences of her actions or coming to terms with her new identity.

He called Sermon's performance "particularly strong in scenes without dialogue" but found that she is "let down by cliched characterization", writing, "Rather than having any personality, she's just depicted as a stereotypical sullen teenager, and she has zero chemistry with her surrogate parents".

Bartlett said that the "meandering plot thread regarding the truth of her biological origins, while fine on its own, kills the momentum and essentially serves as a distraction from the dinosaurs".

[23] Michael John Petty of Collider praised Sermon's performance and wrote that Maisie's inclusion "into the greater Jurassic mythology is something to be celebrated and explored, as there are so many potential scientific, societal, and social implications of such a person's existence".

[25] Saim Cheeda, also of Screen Rant, ranked Maisie's character arc as the second-best in the film series, writing that she "developed from being a scared child to set herself on the path of continuing her biological mother's legacy, ultimately providing Wu with the means to reverse the effects of the locusts".