Sony has dropped the first trailer for Jumanji: Open World, and the clip makes one thing plain from the start: the game is no longer staying inside the game. The new film is set to send the Jumanji characters into everyday reality, picking up on the setup left behind by Jumanji: The Next Level.
That matters now because the trailer is the clearest look yet at a sequel that has been waiting in the wings for years, and it brings back the core names that carried the last two films. Dwayne Johnson, Karen Gillan, Kevin Hart and Jack Black return, with Jake Kasdan back as co-writer and director alongside Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg. Alex Wolff, Morgan Turner, Ser'Darius Blain and Madison Iseman are also back as the youngsters who keep getting sucked into the titular game, with Iseman giving the franchise one of its most familiar human anchors.
Jumanji: Open World is the fourth entry overall in Sony's film series based on Chris Van Allsburg's beloved children's fantasy picture book Jumanji, and the third since Sony soft rebooted the property with Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle in 2017. If Zathura: A Space Adventure is counted as part of Sony's Extended Van Allsburg Universe, it becomes the fifth movie in that line. The new film is also following a pattern that has worked before: a winter holiday launch designed to turn the franchise into a counterprogramming event.
The trailer does not explain how the crossover happens, and that is the part left hanging. The earlier film ended in 2019 with a mid-credits scene that set up the follow-up in which the animals and human avatars from the Jumanji game enter everyday reality, but the footage stops short of showing the mechanics behind that jump. Instead, it leans on the payoff itself, with the real world now sharing space with the game’s chaos.
That choice also sets up a tougher release stretch. Jumanji: Open World opens in theaters on December 25, 2026, and it will have to fight for attention in late December against Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three. The franchise has been here before in the sense that it knows how to play the holiday frame, but this time the sell is bigger: the game is coming out of the screen, and the next question is whether the movie can make that premise feel as wild in full length as it does in the trailer.
