Sony has titled the next Jumanji film Jumanji: Open World and showed the first trailer on Monday night in Las Vegas, putting Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart and Jack Black back at the center of the franchise’s latest run. The studio made the announcement during its CinemaCon presentation and used the title reveal to signal that the threequel is moving closer to theaters.
The trailer opens with a computer repairman named Lamorne Morris arriving at the home of Janice, played by Marin Hinkle, the mother of teen protagonist Spencer, played by Alex Wolff. An old video game console appears, and the world starts to tilt as ostriches storm through the streets of the real world. Spencer and his friends then cross paths with Spencer’s grandfather, played by Danny DeVito, at a restaurant, where he points them to a corner booth and Johnson’s avatar Dr. Bravestone is waiting, speaking with a Spanish accent.
The footage makes clear that the game is not staying inside the game. Hart, Black and Karen Gillan appear in demo mode rather than as themselves, and Black’s avatar says, “I’m beginning to suspect, that we’re not in Jumanji.” The teen heroes head back into the game world with the fate of both Jumanji and their own world in their hands, and Hart said the game rules of Jumanji “don’t apply” this time as he and his three co-stars play three separate versions of their characters.
That stakes-shift fits the way Sony has kept rebuilding the property for a modern audience. Jumanji: Open World is the third film in the studio’s modern series, following Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle in 2017, which grossed more than $962 million worldwide, and Jumanji: The Next Level in 2019, which took in more than $801 million globally. The films draw on Chris Van Allsburg’s children’s book, while the original 1995 movie, directed by Joe Johnston, starred Robin Williams, Kirsten Dunst and Bonnie Hunt.
Johnson said the new film includes an Easter egg to Williams through one half of the original dice from the first Jumanji, and he closed that thought with, “This one’s for you.” Hart called Johnson “a mess” and “drunk as sh*t,” said he did not have a good time making the film and described it as work, while Black called it his “favorite so far,” said it was “wild” and said the production is “pulling out all the stops.” For Sony, the question is no longer whether Jumanji can keep working; Monday night suggested the franchise is still finding new ways to invade the real world.
