Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle surprised everyone when it released back in 2017 and managed to hold its own against
Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi. The more happy-go-lucky film managed to be both a success critically and even more so financially.
Jumanji: The Next Level will be arriving in theatres in just a couple of days and seems set to do just as well at the box office as its predecessor —
more on that here. Once again, the action-comedy will be up against a mainline
Star Wars movie — specifically
Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker. However, the producers of
Jumanji: The Next Level aren't too concerned about that.
During a recent interview with ComicBook.com, producers Hiram Garcia and Matt Tolmach explained why they're confident enough to release the comedy alongside the grand finale to the Skywalker saga.
"You're going up against the monster and Star Wars. You don't know if you're just going to get kind of lost in this tide away. And we started to realize all of a sudden that, 'You know, fans were really loving this.' We do have something special here, a testament to Jake [Kasdan] and to the cast as well, where everyone loved the idea of doing another one," Garcia explained.
"You just had to be right. Like Matt [Tolmach] was saying, it's like it has to be worthy of telling the story. It wasn't just going to be a quick grab of like, 'Oh, let's just do another sequel.' No, we created something special." Tolmach then joked about constantly putting the Jumanji flicks up against Star Wars, "It's good fun for them. It's good for us."
Garcia then spoke about how Jumanji: The Next Level is a perfect film to release around the holidays as it appeals to multiple demographics and is just an all-round good time.
You liked the holidays. The type of movies that people responded to are just big fun, wish fulfillment, and there's never a better time than during the holidays where it's that weird time where everyone's home, and it's kind of the viewing where you go with your whole family and always loved ourselves going to these kinds of movies and to be able to make a movie that we honestly feel a whole family, eight to 80 can say, 'Everyone, let's just go to the movies.' Everyone's going to have fun. Every age group are going to have something that they can lean into and ultimately leave. Just feeling better, having a good time. That's the cinema. We've always loved that. So to be able to have that opportunity, it's awesome.
In Jumanji: The Next Level, the gang is back but the game has changed. As they return to Jumanji to rescue one of their own, they discover that nothing is as they expect. The players will have to brave parts unknown and unexplored, from the arid deserts to the snowy mountains, in order to escape the world’s most dangerous game.
Jumanji: The Next Level is set to release in theatres on December 13th, 2019.