'Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle' Brings Back All Four High School Kids For Another Game
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was a surprisingly huge hit at the box office from the end of 2017 and into 2018. The half-sequel, half-reboot raked in over $962 million at the global box office, so another film was inevitable. But it wouldn't be a proper sequel without a key part of the original cast, and for some reason their deals didn't close until this week.Jumanji 2 (or Jumanji 3 for those keeping the real count) will arrive at the end of the year. While we don't know how the sequel will follow up the last film, we now know that Alex Wolff, Madison Iseman, Ser'Darius Blain, and Morgan Turner will be back as high school kids who got trapped in the video game version of the troublesome board game.The Hollywood Reporter has word on the quartet of high school students returning for the Jumanji sequel. Their roles in the original were mostly bookends, but that didn't make their performances any less important. Each of their personalities acted as inspiration for the video game avatars played by Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart and Karen Gillan. It's surprising that their official addition to the cast is coming so late, but that likely means their screentime will still be limited.
As for the rest of the Jumanji sequel cast, Awkwafina (Crazy Rich Asians), Danny DeVito (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon) have all joined the film. However, we don't know anything about their characters. In fact, we don't even have a basic logline for the Jumanji sequel, so we're not even sure how the game will be utilized this time. But wouldn't it be cool if the avatars somehow got brought into the real world this time?
The big question is whether Jumanji 3 will be anywhere near as successful as its predecessor. The movie was a surprise win for Sony Pictures, becoming one of their biggest box office hits ever. That's a tall order for Jumanji 3 to measure up to, but since it was such a crowdpleasing action adventure for the whole family, there's a good chance plenty will turn out for the sequel. You might think Star Wars: Episode 9 could pose a threat. But don't forget that Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle had to contend with Star Wars: The Last Jedi in 2017, so Jumanji 3 should be just fine..
Jake Kasdan will be back behind the camera as director, and the script will again be written by Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner. Last time Jake Kasdan also helped out with the script, so he'll likely be doing the same this time around.Jumanji 3 hits theaters on December 13, 2019.