TheJumanjifranchise found a new lease of life more than 20 years afterRobin Williamsplayed the dangerous board game, with Dwayne Johnson leading the charge inJumanji: Welcome to the Junglein 2017. However, The Rock may not have had the chance to dip into the fantasy universe if an original sequel plan had been put in action many years earlier.
In a recent interview withSyFy Wire, originalJumanjibook writerChris Van Allsburgrevealed that following the success ofJumanjiin 1995, the movie’s producers pitched an idea for a sequel that would be set in The White House, but it was one that he hated so much that it spurred him into writing aJumanjisequel himself, which was made into the Jon Favreau-directed movieZathura.
While that movie is seen as a stand-alone spin-off from the franchise thanks totheJumanjistory continuingwith the 2017 movie and its sequel, it only came about because Van Allsburg was told by the producer that the only way to stop them making theirJumanjimovie was if someone wrote a better story. The author explained exactly what the abandonedJumanjisequel would have been about, saying:
“I don’t know if there was a single writer involved, but [they] decided that that event happened in Normandy, that the game had floated across the ocean. The game ends up in an antique shop in Normandy and stays there for some period of time.
[The President has] promised his kids to bring back a souvenir from his trip [to celebrate D-Day]. And so, the presidential entourage stops at this little antique shop in Normandy and the President goes in and finds this old board game, Jumanji. He packs it up and he takes it back to Washington, DC and then all the mayhem that the game can generate is generated in the White House and the halls of Congress … They had some crazy stuff. I think there was a gorilla that climbs the Washington Monument in an homage to King Kong.
[One scene would have featured animals being cut in half by a propellor] then they were able to reassemble themselves into different parts of an animal. It was just a really lame excuse to see what some CGI artist could do. Totally idiotic.
One of the producers said to me, ‘The only thing that would keep them from making this is a better idea.’”
Related:Original Stars Explain How Robin Williams Kept His Improv in Check Filming Jumanji
When it was released,Zathura: A Space Adventure, usually just calledZathura,failed to make the same impact as its predecessor. Whether it was the absence of Robin Williams, or the circumstances of the film going up against movies such as Disney’sChicken LittleandHarry Potter and the Goblet of Firein its first weeks on release in 2005, the movie ended its theatrical run with a box office that barely scraped back its $65 million budget.
Starring Josh Hutcherson, Tim Robbins, Frank Oz and futureTwilightstar Kristen Stewart, the film tells the story of two brothers who – surprise, surprise – discover a mysterious board game that, when played, transports their house into space and pitches them into a fight to survive the game and return home.
While Zathura gained favorable reviews and picked up award nominations, the connection toJumanji, but without Robin Williams’ involvement, was possibly just too much of a focus to allow the film to stand on its own merit. Although the newJumanimovies set their action within the Jumanji board game, star Jack Black did previously show an interest in seeing the franchise head back into space again as an “expansion of the universe.” However, for the momenta fourthJumanjimovie seems to have stalled, so the chances of seeingZathurareturning to screens for a second time seem like just a distant dream.
For those interested in checking outZathurafor themselves, the movie is currently streaming on Netflix and Prime Video.
