Jumanji 4 is under development at Sony. The production house announced the highly-anticipated sequel back in October 2023. The success of the original Jumanji film (1995) spawned a spin-off, Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005), and two indirect sequels, Welcome to the Jungle (2017) and The Next Level (2019). While these entries expanded the franchise, none of these films featured any character from the 1995 film, which had the likes of the late Robin Williams, Kirsten Dunst, David Alan Grier, Bonnie Hunt, and Jonathan Hyde. Speaking of Grier, the actor recently talked with Screen Rant about his rumoured appearance in Jumanji 4.
David Alan Grier played Carl Bentley in the first Jumaji flick. Bentley was Alan’s (Robin Williams) childhood friend who became a police officer in the film. When asked about whether Sony approached him for Jumanji 4, Grier expressed his desire to appear in the film. However, he has not been approached yet by Sony.
“Yes, by me, mostly. You know, we’re kind of in a space where a studio may own a property. They want to do a reboot of the property, but they don’t want anything that refers to the original property. It’s kind of like you divorce your partner but keep their last name. But this a whole reboot.”
Given Grier’s comments, it seems like the actor is not expecting any call from Sony for Jumanji 4. His comments also make sense as both ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ and ‘The Next Level’ look significantly different from the 1995 movie in terms of plot execution, characters, and settings.
It doesn’t matter if David Alan Grier appears in Jumanji 4 or not. What really matters is that the Jumanji franchise will continue. We may get more entries in the future, considering how brilliantly ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ and ‘The Next Level’ performed at the global box office, earning over $990 million and $800 million, respectively. And we should expect to see Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, and Jack Black in the fourth Jumanji flick. Stay tuned for more updates.