Director Jake Kasdan believes that Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart and the rest of the cast are crucial.
No one expected the Jumanji reboots to be much good, but somehow Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and last year’s follow-up Jumanji: The Next Level turned out to be two of the most successful comedies in recent memory. Of course, with such success comes more sequels, and so, director Jake Kasdan and the rest of the creative team are now working hard on sketching out the next movie. But, the question on everyone’s minds is whether or not the main cast will be back for more zany jungle action in Jumanji 4. A question that Kasdan has a vague answer for.
“The whole thing, to me, is built on the foundation of those people. The game cast are these brilliant movie stars, these iconic people
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Now, while he does not exactly say yes, it is hard to interpret that answer as anything other than a confirmation that the likes of Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, and Jack Black will return for [Jumanji 4: The Next Next Level} or whatever it ends up being called. Of course, aside from Kasdan near-enough confirming that the older actors will be back, there is also the matter of the younger actors and how they will factor into the next movie.
“The thing that’s easy to not fully appreciate in the mix of how they work is that the kids are just brilliant. And Alex [Wolff] in particular just really… he plays that character in such a funny, smart way. He’s quietly a really essential part of it.”
Singling out actor Alex Wolff in particular, Kasdan even went as far as to say that “it’s hard to imagine a Jumanji movie without Alex Wolff in it.” He also referred to the rest of the younger actors (Madison Iseman, Ser’Darius Blain, and Morgan Turner) as “brilliant” and said they’re not appreciated nearly enough.
A lot of the franchise’s continued success has been due to the chemistry between the two different casts of characters, and it would not really make much sense to change them now. If anything, it would even be better to put them together somehow. Perhaps for Jumanji 4: Game Over the jungles of Jumanji could bleed into the real world (much like the very first movie) and bring the two groups together somehow.
This idea is teased in the Jumanji: The Next Level end-credit scene, when Ostriches are let loose on a city street, indicating that a portal has been opened in the real world, much like in the Robin Williams classic. This will give the kids and the video game avatars a chance to work together for the first time.
Jumanji: The Next Level did introduce us to some new characters who follow Martha, Fridge, and Bethany back into the game in order to find Spencer, who has gone missing. However, it is difficult to see how vastly changing the character roster at this stage would be anything but jarring.
There is no timetable yet on the next Jumanji movie, but if it follows the release pattern of the last two movies, it should come out in December of 2021. That is definitely achievable, provided that studios are able to get back to filming without restrictions sometime soon.
Very, very little is known about Jumanji 4: The Jumanjiest but considering the response to the previous movies, it is certainly something audiences want to see happen as soon as possible. This comes to us courtesy of NME.
