Director Jake Kasdan took a break from the Jumanji franchise to work on 2024’s Red One, but the director recently teased more information about a planned third film in the new Jumanji series that began back in 2017.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Kasdan — who directed both Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Jumanji: The Next Level — revealed that, even though he had been working on Red One for the past few years, development of the next Jumanji film never stopped.
“We’ve been working on it on and off throughout the years,” said Kasdan. “Obviously, I went away and made Red One, which was a big deal. It took time and focus and all that it takes to make a movie like this. I also made the previous two Jumanji movies back to back, and we had a great time making those movies. Those were four fantastic years in a row. But it was good for us to take a breath and step away from it for a second. Creatively, it’s good to be able to think about what the next one should be, and also just think about other things for a minute. So, returning to it has been a great feeling, and I’ve loved stepping back into it lately. We’re really starting to contemplate how to do something new with the parts that we love.”
What did the Jumanji 3 director say about future film cameos?
Kasdan also briefly touched on the potential for cameos in the next movie. Bonnie Hunt — who starred as Sara Whittle in the original 1995 Jumanji — appears in Red One as Mrs. Claus. After joking about a potential recruitment effort to get her in the movie, Kasdan praised the actress as “the best.”
“I talked to her a lot about our familial Jumanji connection, and she’s the best,” Kasdan said. “She’s just great. She’s someone I’ve always wanted to work with, and this was a great opportunity to finally do it. It’s a small but beloved part of the movie for me, and when she came in, she was all you’d want her to be.”
Another Jumanji alum, Kirsten Dunst, has said that she’s never been approached about a cameo opportunity. Kasdan also praised Dunst, but did note that the original Jumanji does end with many characters forgetting the events of the movie, leaving it a bit difficult to include them in projects due to plot devices.
“We love Kirsten. She’s fantastic. From the time we did Welcome to the Jungle, we were very focused on keeping a little bit of connectivity to the original movie, which we love,” said Kasdan. “We’ve always wanted to honor it and keep enough of it alive. Also, the way the original movie ends, as brilliant as it is, creates a lot of plot complications in trying to continue the story with those characters. I don’t know how well you remember it, but the world reverts back to what it was before, as though it never happened. Some of the characters are still aware of what happened, but most of them aren’t.”
“But, that said, within that complication, we’ve loved trying to figure out some way to do it in a way that is fun and passes some kind of fidelity to the original story. So, in Welcome to the Jungle, there are some references to Robin’s character, and then in The Next Level, we have a character [Judy’s aunt Nora, played by Bebe Neuwirth] that comes back in a way and obeys the previous story told, but in a slightly sideways way.”
(Source: The Hollywood Reporter)