Los Angeles, Oct 11 (UNI) The popular Jumanji franchise is set to return to the big screen as Sony readies its next high-octane instalment, slated to begin production in November in Los Angeles.
Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Karen Gillan are returning to star in the feature, which will once again be directed by Jake Kasdan. It has a release date of Dec. 11, 2026, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
One new face in the feature will be Brittany O’Grady, who may be best known for co-starring in the first season of Mike White’s HBO series, The White Lotus. Burn Gorman, who has appeared in movies such as Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, is another new face on the roll call.
The production is led by Matt Tolmach, Johnson, Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia and Kasdan. The screenplay, crafted by Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg, promises to continue the franchise’s signature blend of adventure, humour and fantastical escapades.
Jumanji is ostensibly based on the 1981 picture book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg and which featured an enchanted board game come to life. That was the general basis of Sony’s beloved 1995 movie starring Robin Williams.
Jumanji got a modern all-star update in 2017 with Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, with the board game now being a video game plus the trappings of a body-switching movie: four teens find themselves trapped in the game while inhabiting adult-like avatars (Johnson, Hart, Black, Gillan). That movie grossed $962.5 million worldwide, launching a veritable franchise. A sequel, titled Jumanji: The Next Level, was released in 2019 and grossed $800 million globally.
The forthcoming film, viewed as either the fourth overall entry or the third in the modern revival, is expected to build upon the series’ signature mix of humour, heart and adventure while introducing new twists to its ever-evolving mythos. Alex Wolff, Madison Iseman, Ser’Darius Blaine, and Morgan Turner, who played the “IRL” characters in the previous movies, are expected to return as is Awkwafina, who appeared in the 2019 entry.
Character details for O’Grady and Gorman were not revealed.
On top of her White Lotus breakout, O’Grady will be seen as part of the ensemble cast of Kathryn Bigelow’s buzzy new dramatic feature, A House of Dynamite, which debuts on Netflix on October 24.
She was one of the stars of It’s What’s Inside on Netflix, which debuted last fall after selling to Netflix as the largest Sundance sale of the year, and appeared opposite Daisy Ridley in Sometimes I Think About Dying and opposite Kevin Bacon in this year’s Tribeca selection The Best You Can.
O’Grady, who also starred opposite Christoph Waltz in Amazon’s stylish thriller series The Consultant, is repped by CAA and Suskin/Karshan Management.
Gorman is represented by Verve and Management 360.
