Sony Pictures has released the Jumanji: Open World trailer, putting Jake Kasdan’s sequel back on the board after years of stops, starts, and one very deliberate mid-credits tease. The film is scheduled to reach theaters on Dec. 25, 2026.
The new movie follows Kasdan’s 2017 franchise reset, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, and his 2019 sequel, Jumanji: The Next Level. Those films rewired the 1995 Robin Williams movie’s cursed board-game premise into a video game adventure, complete with avatars, limited lives, character stats, and the sort of game logic that makes sense only if nobody audits the design document too closely.
The trailer shows the game leaking out into ordinary life. According to the footage, the avatars have crossed into the real world and are trapped in demo mode. The setup points back to the ending of The Next Level, where Lamorne Morris appeared as a heater repairman who found the damaged game console at Spencer’s house and accidentally activated it. A herd of ostriches then appeared outside Nora’s diner, echoing the original film’s idea that Jumanji’s hazards can invade reality until the players finish the game.
What is Jumanji: Open World about?
Sony has not released a full plot summary, but the trailer indicates that the boundary between the video game and real life has failed. The footage also shows Spencer’s mother, Janice, played by Marin Hinkle, taking on the avatar of Dr. Xander “Smolder” Bravestone, previously played as an in-game body by Dwayne Johnson.
That avatar-swapping mechanic has been the modern series’ main joke engine and, occasionally, its cleanest bit of storytelling. A teenager, parent, or grandparent gets dropped into a body with absurd strengths and weaknesses, then has to operate inside the game’s rules while everyone else argues about who is stuck as whom. It is broad comedy, but the rules matter, because the franchise keeps treating Jumanji less like magic fog and more like hostile software with animals.
The returning cast is crowded. Johnson is back as Bravestone, with Jack Black as Professor Sheldon “Shelly” Oberon, Kevin Hart as Franklin “Mouse” Finbar, Karen Gillan as Ruby Roundhouse, Nick Jonas as Jefferson “Seaplane” McDonough, Awkwafina as Ming Flatfoot, and Rhys Darby as Nigel Billingsley.
The real-world players are returning too: Alex Wolff as Spencer Gilpin, Ser’Darius Blain as Fridge Johnson, Morgan Turner as Martha, Madison Iseman as Bethany, Hinkle as Janice, and Danny DeVito as Spencer’s grandfather Eddie. Bebe Neuwirth, who appeared in the 1995 film and returned as Nora in The Next Level, is also listed for the new movie.
Additional cast members include Dan Hildebrand as Donatas and Jack Jewkes as Tyson. Burn Gorman, Nasim Pedrad, and Brittany O’Grady are also set to appear, though their roles have not been disclosed.
The sequel’s development was slowed by the COVID-19 pandemic before work picked up again in 2024. One unresolved thread remains from The Next Level: Johnson said in 2019 that Jurgen the Brutal, played by Rory McCann, was actually the avatar of an unknown player in the real world. Sony has not said how, or whether, Open World will address that reveal.
This story draws on original reporting from Ars Technica.
