In an age where every old property gets a chance to return and reinvent itself (hello there, Cobra Kai), the Jumanji films to date have been very successful… so successful, in fact, that modern audiences might not even know that the two films centered around The Rock, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillen and Jack Black were spinoffs of an older Robin Williams adventure. The bottom line is, this is a winning franchise for Sony, a studio that doesn’t have a ton of lucrative franchises, so the fact that they’d want to continue with them makes all of the sense in the world.
The most recent chapter, 2019’s Jumanji: The Next Level, left itself on a bit of a cliffhanger, as animals from the video game found themselves out in the real world, perhaps because a repairman (Lamorne Morris) tinkered with the fateful console game in the basement. So when Jumanji producer Hiram Garcia spoke with ComicBook about the possibilities about more adventures with these characters, he said “100%” before throwing in:
You know, we're always having conversations, and that's a family, that entire group if there's ever been. It's hard to imagine or remember a time I've been on a set where it's just a beloved group of cast and crew and actors and that's just one of those things where we know we have a really big idea that we want to do with it. We've been discussing it.
I hope that they are able to maintain the creativity that has been on display in the latest Jumanji chapters. There seems to be so many different ways that they can reinvent themselves as they continue to expand on the world. And now that the “game” appears to be coming out into the new world, what does that mean for the avatars that are played by the high-powered cast like The Rock and Karen Gillan? Will the next movie have to lean on the younger cast, like Morgan Turner, Alex Wolff and Madison Iseman?
Essentially, these movies won’t slow down until they stop earning money, and the last one, Jumanji: The Next Level, crossed $800 million in worldwide ticket sales. And this was going up against Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and everyone wanted to know how that saga was going to end.
Until we get back into the game, The Rock will want us to get back into a movie theater, safely, to see him opposite Emily Blunt in the Disney live-action Jungle Cruise movie. Also, he has Young Rock on TV, and will begin filming Black Adam for DC soon. Seriously, that man never takes a minute to rest.
