Along with her run as Amy Pond on Doctor Who and time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe playing Nebula (a character she may say goodbye to after Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’s release), Karen Gillan has collected fans from the recent Jumanji movies. Gillan starred in 2017’s Welcome to the Jungle and 2019’s The Next Level as Ruby Roundhouse, one of the main avatar’s in the Jumanji game alongside Dwayne Johnson’s Smolder Bravestone, Kevin Hart’s Mouse Finbar and Jack Black’s Shelly Oberon. There’s been talk for a while about a fourth Jumanji movie (counting the original from 1995) being made, and Gillan recently gave a candid answer about whether the sequel is actually happening.
A fan asked Karen Gillan on her Instagram Stories if there will be “another Jumanji movie” to “complete the trilogy,” adding that the Ruby Roundhouse actress is “magical in them.” Gillan responded:
Thank you! Yes, I believe there will be another film, I don’t know when! It’s hard to get everyone’s schedules aligned. But we are all very excited to make another one.
Karen Gillan and her three main co-stars certainly don’t have any trouble finding work these days, with Dwayne Johnson now playing Black Adam in the DC Extended Universe, and both Kevin Hart and Jack Black starring in the Borderlands movie, among other projects. So it’s understandable that it would be hard to free up the four actors’ schedules so they could reunite, but as far as Gillan knows, Jumanji 4 is indeed still happening. It may be a while until a timetable is figured out, but as Gillan noted, she and her costars are looking forward to returning to the franchise at some point.
The ending of Jumanji: The Next Level certainly laid the groundwork for a sequel, as the mid-credits scene showed Spencer, Martha, Fridge and Bethany seeing some animals from the game stampeding though their town. While Welcome to the Jungle and The Next Level kept its action chiefly contained to the world inside the Jumanji video game, this latest development harkens back to when Jumanji in its board game form was unleashing chaos into the real world during the 1995 movie starring Robin Williams and Kirsten Dunst. Dwayne Johnson also revealed that the NPC Jurgen the Brutal in The Next Level, played by Rory McCann, was actually an avatar being controlled by an unknown character, so there’s a decent chance we’ll meet that individual in Jumanji 4.
Director Jake Kasdan confirmed in March 2020 that Jumanji 4 was in the early stages of development, but a lot’s happened since then, particularly the COVID pandemic. On the bright side, at least Karen Gillan is more in the loop on what’s happening with the project compared to July 2021, when she said didn’t “know anything about the next one.” A month later, Hiram Garcia, Dwayne Johnson’s producing partner, said that Jumanji 4 was “in the hopper,” and they’re “focused on delivering the best version of that story.”
CinemaBlend will pass along any official details concerning Jumanji 4 once they trickle in. Karen Gillan can currently be seen reprising Nebula in Thor: Love and Thunder, and she’ll be back as the character this December for The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, which will be viewable with a Disney+ subscription.