Jumanji Sequel Levels Up: Title, Plot, and Release Date Unveiled at CinemaCon

Well, it took seven years, but we finally have actual info about the next big Jumanji movie. If you have been quietly wondering just how much longer we’d have to wait for the fourth round of jungle chaos (and, let’s be honest, for Dwayne Johnson to muscle his way through yet another fantasy universe), the wait is over. The main cast is back, we’ve got a title, a plot, and a release date, all served up loud and proud by the stars themselves at CinemaCon in Las Vegas.

The Legacy So Far

Quick refresher: the original Jumanji (Robin Williams, 1995) was that whole cursed-board-game-destroys-your-suburban-life story. In 2017, director Jake Kasdan (who’s also back for this one) took all that and modernized it, swapping the board game for a video game console. The result: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. In that one, a group of teenagers—Alex Wolff, Ser'Darius Blain, Madison Iseman, and Morgan Turner—get sucked into the game and end up inside the bodies of their chosen avatars: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Karen Gillan.

The movie did crazy good business, raking in a whopping $962.5 million worldwide and even making critics happy (which never happens). So of course there was a sequel: Jumanji: The Next Level in 2019. This second go-around tossed Awkwafina, Danny DeVito, and Danny Glover into the mix, and it still managed to pull in over $800 million, because people will apparently never get tired of watching The Rock run through jungles.

What We Know About the New One

• Title: Jumanji: Open World. (Yes, video game nerds, they finally went there.)
• Main Four Are Back: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Karen Gillan are all returning for more avatar-switching chaos.
• Jake Kasdan is back as director. He clearly likes sending these people into virtual danger over and over.
• Plot: The new movie literally picks up where The Next Level left off—meaning, the line between video game world and real life is basically non-existent now. Expect things to get even weirder.
• Release Details: The stars themselves dropped the first footage (and all these facts) onstage at CinemaCon in Vegas. Official date is set, but you knew they’d save SOMETHING for later.

The Quote

'We’ve been waiting a long time to get back into this world, and we can’t wait to show you where the game goes next.'

Johnson, Hart, and Black seem genuinely psyched to be back. Or maybe they’re just happy about another giant paycheck. Either way, they kicked off the promo tour by dropping the big details while previewing the first footage for an audience of industry types.

What’s Next?

If you’re counting, this is technically the fourth main Jumanji movie—unless you want to be THAT person and bring up Zathura, the weird space spinoff the studio pretends doesn’t exist. But hey, let’s not get into technicalities. The whole point: the video game and the real world are merging, our favorite avatars are back, and, if the past dollar amounts are any hint, Sony is about to have yet another massive hit.

As for more plot and casting details, you can bet they’ll be held back for dramatic effect. But for now, the important thing is we’re actually getting another madcap Jumanji movie. Finally.