People weren't sure what to expect when Dwayne Johnson announced a sequel to Jumanji. Many were worried the film wouldn't live up to the memories they had of the beloved original that starred Robin Williams. However, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was a massive hit so you can be sure a lot of people are looking forward to yet another sequel. That movie went into production yesterday and Dwayne Johnson celebrated the announcement on Twitter.
Dwayne Johnson wished everybody a Happy Valentine's Day yesterday while also using the opportunity to make fans of Jumanji aware that the new movie has begun production. This movie is looking to have an incredibly fast turn around as it is currently set to hit theaters this December.
Along with the announcement comes a single image. We see a pair of hands holding the Jumanji video game cartridge from the last movie. It's a little beat up but appears to be in one piece. Remnants of smashed electronics are visible in the case in the background.
At the end of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, the four kids smashed the hell out of the Jumanji game and console in an attempt to be sure nobody ever accidentally played it again. It seems somebody has picked up the pieces.
Perhaps these hands belong to one of the kids who played the game initially, if they discover a reason they have to go back into the game world. We do know that all four teenagers who played the "real world" versions of the four game avatars will be back, making this new movie a more direct sequel to Welcome to the Jungle, than that film really was to the original Jumanji.
Alternatively, this could be some other character who has come across the game. The question then becomes if this person actually knows what they have or not.
Danny DeVito, Danny Glover, and Awkwafina have all been added to the cast of the new Jumanji, though we don't know anything about the roles they'll be playing.
It will be very interesting to see what Jumanji 3 does to make itself feel as fresh and unique as Welcome to the Jungle did. That movie updated the premise of the original Jumanji by turning the board game into a video game and putting the characters inside game avatars, played by Dwayne Johnson, Karen Gillan, Jack Black, and Kevin Hart.
With the new movie being a direct sequel with all of the same main players, will going back into the video game world for another adventure be enough or has the new film found another way to update the premise to give new life to this new adventure? We'll find out on December 13 when Jumanji 3, though it almost certainly will be called something else, hits theaters.
