Jake Kasdan, the director of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Jumanji: The Next Level, the modern adventure films that continued (or relaunched, depending on which side of the fence you’re on) the beloved franchise, is finally explaining why certain characters from the original film haven’t returned. Fans have long hoped for actors from Robin Williams‘ epic 1995 to appear in the new films, but according to Kasdan, “plot complications” are keeping that from happening.
Kasdan spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about his new film, Red One, which stars Jumanji star Dwayne Johnson. It didn’t take long for the conversation to tilt toward the future of the Jumanji franchise. Kasdan was asked about the possible return of Kirsten Dunst‘s character, Judy Sheperd, in the upcoming sequel to be released in 2026. Per Kasdan’s answer:
“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. 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. So the kids don’t remember because it short-circuits the part where they have the adventure, but Robin [Williams] and Bonnie’s characters are aware.
So it has this complicated, clever bit of storytelling at the end that has always made the challenge of continuing their story very complicated. 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.”
To which this writer says: yeah, right — as if those issues haven’t been solved many times before in the era of legacy sequels and nostalgic cameos. It’s even already been solved in the Jumanji universe! But more on that later.
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The director also spoke about the possibility of convincing Bonnie Hunt to return to the franchise, given her recent work with Kasdan on Red One. The THR reporter asked about this “connection” between the two films, and Kasdan said the following: “I talked to her a lot about our familial Jumanji connection, and she’s the best. 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.”
The Future of ‘Jumanji’
Jumanji 4 will be released in December 2026. Kasdan took a break from working on the film to do his latest Christmas caper, Red One, but explained to THR how taking time between films has only made the process better:
“We’ve been working on it on and off throughout the years. 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.”
It should be noted that when it comes to legacy characters returning for the new sequels, Jumanji has already had a cameo that confirmed both series were connected. We’re talking about Bebe Neuwirth’s cameo in The Next Level. (Neuwirth plays Nora Shepherd, aunt of the children in 1995’s Jumanji.) If they can make it work for Neuwirth, surely a Dunst moment is possible. We’ll just have to roll the dice and see what’s next.
- Release Date
- December 15, 1995