Jumanji: Open World Lets the Game Loose in the Real World—And That May Be Exactly What This Series Needs

The first trailer for Jumanji: Open World has arrived, bringing Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Karen Gillan back for one final adventure. This time, instead of sending everyone into the game again, Jumanji breaks free of the console and brings the jungle into the real world.

I was probably a little out of the age range for the original Jumanji when it came out in 1995, so I didn’t pay much attention to it at the time. It wasn’t until I had kids and watched it with them that I learned to appreciate just how solid and fun the movie actually is.

I still wouldn’t call it a great movie, but it’s a very good one, and I’m not sure it would have worked nearly as well without Robin Williams. He gave the entire thing a level of heart, energy and credibility that kept it from becoming nothing more than kids running away from monkeys, giant mosquitoes and one extremely pissed-off hunter.

Without Robin, I don’t know if anyone would still care about Jumanji more than 30 years later.

That made the idea of bringing it back without him feel like a pretty questionable decision. Instead of trying to remake the original, though, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle took the basic concept, turned the board game into a video game and sent its characters inside it.

One would think it would have been terrible. Instead, it was one of my biggest surprises of 2017.

Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Karen Gillan had great chemistry, the avatar gimmick gave everyone something fun to play with and the movie understood that it needed to be its own thing rather than spending two hours trying to remind us of Robin Williams.

I’m a big fan of both of the newer movies. Welcome to the Jungle was the better and fresher of the two, but The Next Level found enough new wrinkles to keep the idea entertaining. Danny DeVito and Danny Glover being placed inside The Rock and Kevin Hart’s bodies was exactly as ridiculous as it sounds, but Danny DeVito makes everything better—even when it’s mostly just Dwayne Johnson doing an impression of him.

And now, here we go again.

The trailer for Jumanji: Open World brings the cast back together, but instead of trapping everyone inside the video game for another trip through the jungle, Jumanji breaks out of the console and enters the real world.

That’s the right move.

Another movie built entirely around the characters getting sucked into the game would have risked feeling like the same adventure for the third time. Bringing Jumanji into our world opens the story up and, more importantly, gives the filmmakers a chance to tie the modern movies back to the original.

The trailer has wild animals running through places where wild animals clearly have no business being, the game’s avatars walking around outside Jumanji and the returning players trying to figure out how to put everything back where it belongs. The characters may no longer be trapped inside the game, but the game clearly still has the controller firmly in its grip.

The connection to the original movie doesn’t appear to be accidental. Dwayne Johnson has said his character wears one of the original game dice as a tribute to Robin Williams, and Bebe Neuwirth is returning as Nora Shepherd. Neuwirth played Peter and Judy’s aunt in the 1995 movie before making a brief return at the end of The Next Level.

That doesn’t guarantee we’re getting some giant reunion between every era of Jumanji, but it does suggest the filmmakers know exactly where this story started.

I’d love to see the whole thing tie together now that everyone is back in the real world. The newer movies have already acknowledged Alan Parrish and what happened before them, but this is the first time the two versions of the franchise could truly feel like parts of the same story.

The core four are all back, along with Alex Wolff, Madison Iseman, Ser’Darius Blain, Morgan Turner, Nick Jonas, Awkwafina, Rhys Darby, Danny DeVito and Bebe Neuwirth. Jake Kasdan also returns to direct, which means Sony isn’t changing the people or chemistry that made the last two movies work.

This is being positioned as the final installment of the modern series. If it really is the end, bringing the game into the real world feels like the correct way to finish it. The idea returns the franchise to its original premise while still allowing the newer cast to complete the version they created.

I have hope for this one. The cast already knows exactly how to play off one another, the new setting gives them plenty of room to do something different and the original movie appears to have a real presence instead of being treated like something that needs to be replaced or ignored.

It could also be the movie that finally breaks The Rock’s recent box-office losing streak.

Dwayne Johnson remains one of the most recognizable people on the planet, but that recognition hasn’t automatically translated into massive theatrical hits lately. His franchise Viagra powers seem to have finally worn off. Returning to one of his most successful franchises, surrounded by a cast that brings out the best in him, may be exactly what he needs.

The first two modern Jumanji movies earned more than $1.7 billion combined worldwide, so this isn’t some desperate attempt to revive a franchise nobody asked for. People clearly like these movies, and I’m one of them.

All they need to do now is stick the landing.

Jumanji: Open World arrives in theaters on Christmas Day.