Official Trailer for JUMANJI: THE NEXT LEVEL

In a not-so-surprising turn, Sony has released the first, full length trailer for the sequel to their Christmas 2017 smash, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, the day before Spider-Man: Far From Home officially opens. Given Welcome to the Jungle is Sony's all-time top domestic earner and the film earned an insane $962 million worldwide two years ago it was a no-brainer the studio would pump out a sequel as soon as it could, but while this may feel slightly rushed in terms of attempting to capitalize on this surprise sequel, the studio was able to gather back all of the original cast members as well as director Jake Kasdan with the most surprising part being that the two (returning) screenwriters, Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner, have seemingly cooked up a story that will change things up enough from the previous film while still utilizing the aspects that made that film work so well in the first place. That is to say, Sony can seemingly keep this franchise going as long as they want given the avatars are the stars of the film and not the human counterparts who become trapped in said board/video game. To boot, the idea of having Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Karen Gillan being able to adopt different personalities in each movie depending on who gets sucked into the game is a great concept and one the studio and filmmakers could have a lot of fun with over the course of a few more sequels. In Jumanji: The Next Level, our real-world friends from the previous film return to Jumanji to rescue one of their own but discover that nothing is as they expect. The players need to brave parts unknown, from arid deserts to snowy mountains, in order to escape the world's most dangerous game. Of course, the hook here is that Hart and Johnson are no longer playing polar opposite high school kids, but two curmudgeonly old friends in the form of Danny DeVito and Danny Glover. Needless to say, Johnson and Hart doing impressions of DeVito and Glover is the last thing I thought I needed in my life, but after today I need it more than most things. This should be another fun adventure flick with a strong re-watchability factor and I can't wait to see what Kasdan and crew have in store this Christmas. Jumanji: The Next Level also sees the return of Alex Wolff, Madison Iseman, Morgan Turner, Ser'Darius Blain, Nick Jonas, Rhys Darby, and Colin Hanks while Awkwafina and Dania Ramirez join the cast as the film is set to open on December 13th, 2019.