It’s not enough that Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart and Karen Gillan came together for Columbia Pictures’ latest installment. Jumanji, but now most of the supporting players have as well.
Bebe Neuwirth, Danny DeVito, Lamorne Morris, Marin Hinkle, Nick Jonas and Rhys Darby are also on the call list for the production, which began this week in Los Angeles with director Jake Kasdan.
Dan Hildebrand (Game of Thrones) and Jack Jewkes (Criminal minds) also joined the production as new actors.
Jumanji is based on the 1981 picture book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg which featured an enchanted board game brought to life. This was the general basis for Sony’s beloved 1995 film starring Robin Williams.
Jumanji received a modern all-star update in 2017 with Jumanji: Welcome to the Junglethe board game now being a video game with the trappings of a body-switching movie: four teenagers find themselves trapped in the game while inhabiting adult-like avatars (Johnson, Hart, Black, Gillan). This film grossed $962.5 million worldwide, launching a franchise. The sequel, Jumanji: Next Levelwas released in 2019 and grossed $800 million worldwide.
Plot details are being kept in the vault, but it is known that Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg wrote the screenplay.
Jonas is back as “Seaplane” McDonough, a pilot from the video game while Darby is back as Nigel Billingsley, the game’s field guide.
DeVito returns as Eddie, Spencer’s grandfather, the character whose video game avatar is inhabited by Johnson. Hinkle is Spencer’s mother.
Neuwirth appeared in Williams’ original film and returned for Next level. Morris made an appearance in Next level like Heater Guy.
Matt Tolmach, Johnson, Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia and Kasdan are producing the new opus, which has a release date of December 11, 2026.
DeVito (It’s always sunny in Philadelphia) is replaced by CAA while Jonas is replaced by UTA, Philymack and 2PM Sharp.
Hinkle (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) is repped by Innovative Artists, Framework and Schreck Dapello, while Tony Award nominee Neuwirth is repped by CAA. Morris (Fargo, Spider-Black) is carried by CAA, Entertainment 360 and Myman Greenspan.
Darby (Flight of the Concordes) is covered by UTA, Artists First and Yorn Levine. Hildebrand is repped by TCA and Affirmative Entertainment. While Jewkes is repped by TalentWorks, Maxed Management and Jackoway Austen
