Dwayne Johnson is signaling one last round for the current Jumanji trilogy.
Sony Pictures will release Jumanji: Open World in theaters on Dec. 25, with director Jake Kasdan returning alongside franchise stars Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart and Karen Gillan. The movie has been billed as the trilogy’s final installment.
This time, the adventure is moving beyond the confines of the game. Open World follows the game’s heroes as they escape their console and unleash chaos in the real world.
Johnson underlined that collision of settings while sharing the movie’s newly released poster on Instagram.
“Two worlds collide,” he wrote. “One final game. #Jumanji: Open World — the last game is coming exclusively to movie theatres CHRISTMAS DAY.”
The Players Enter the Real World
Sony released the poster on Monday, presenting the stars’ faces in a vertical stack. The image follows the first trailer, which arrived online over the summer and showed the four central characters appearing in the real world as awkward, stilted versions of their video game avatars.
The returning ensemble extends well beyond Johnson, Black, Hart and Gillan. Nick Jonas, Alex Wolff, Morgan Turner, Ser’Darius Blain, Madison Iseman, Rhys Darby and Danny DeVito are also part of the cast.
Kasdan directed both earlier installments in the current trilogy: 2017’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and its 2019 sequel, Jumanji: The Next Level. For Open World, he directed from a script he co-wrote with Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg.
Kasdan also serves as a producer with Johnson, Matt Tolmach, Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia.
The title and first footage were unveiled at CinemaCon earlier this year, where Johnson, Hart and Black took the stage to introduce the project. Black offered an enthusiastic assessment of the new chapter, telling the audience, “I’ve never had more fun working on a movie. This is my favorite so far.”
A Franchise Built Around Reinvention
Open World continues a screen history that stretches back to the 1995 feature starring Robin Williams, itself an adaptation of Chris Van Allsburg’s 1981 children’s book.
Welcome to the Jungle rebooted the franchise by centering on teenage friends who become trapped inside a video game, inhabiting a group of adult avatars. Released in December 2017, the movie surpassed $950 million at the worldwide box office.
The Next Level followed in 2019 and topped $801 million globally. The new installment keeps the familiar cast in place while reversing the trilogy’s central setup: Instead of players entering the game, the game’s heroes are now breaking into their world.
ShowBiz Take
The “final game” framing gives Jumanji: Open World more significance than a standard sequel. Sony is not only bringing back the principal stars and the director behind the previous two movies; it is also using the trilogy’s concluding chapter to change where the action takes place.
That shift gives the finale a clear hook. Welcome to the Jungle established the adult-avatar concept, while Open World takes those game characters out of their expected environment. The trailer’s deliberately stiff real-world versions of the avatars suggest that their escape from the console will drive both the disruption and the comedy.
The commercial history also sets a substantial benchmark. With the previous two films respectively passing $950 million and $801 million worldwide, the finale arrives after two major global box-office performances.
What Happens Next?
Following the CinemaCon footage, the summer trailer and Monday’s poster reveal, Jumanji: Open World is scheduled to reach movie theaters on Dec. 25. For Johnson and the returning ensemble, that Christmas Day release is being presented as the last game in the trilogy.