2025-11-19 17:28:20
The First Look at Jumanji 3 Takes the Characters Out of the Video Game Console — So Maybe They'll Meet the Board Game IRL
Lex Briscuso

As expected, the video game characters are out of the console. The first look from Jumanji 3 is here, and it shows us something we kind of already knew was going to happen, but love nonetheless: the film’s main characters are in the real world now.

“Look who’s on the loose,” Sony Pictures’ official Twitter/X account shared on Wednesday, November 19, alongside a photo of Dwayne Johnson's Dr. Xander 'Smolder' Bravestone, Karen Gillan's Ruby Roundhouse, Kevin Hart's Franklin 'Mouse' Finbar, and Jack Black's Professor Sheldon 'Shelly' Oberon standing in the middle of a residually snowy wintertime Boston street. That means they’ve left the video game world of Jumanji — and there’s a chance they might have an encounter with the real-life board game now that they’re beyond the console.

The first two films in the spinoff franchise — 2017’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and 2019’s Jumanji: The Next Level — saw the characters getting pulled into a Jumanji video game, so it’s clear that the last film in the franchise is changing up the tactic.

It feels like there’s a big chance the characters will encounter the actual board game in this installment, and one of the biggest hints in favor of that plot point is the fact that Johnson’s character will be wearing a dice necklace in the film meant to pay homage to the original 1995 classic.

"The significance of the dice in the last picture is a little Easter egg that my character, Dr. Smolder Bravestone, wears on a necklace in our final film," the actor recently shared on Instagram. "It’s the dice from the original 1995 JUMANJI and a way of paying homage, love, and respect to the great Robin Williams."

Johnson also shared that the movie will officially be the final installment in the franchise. "What a massive, fun, heartfelt adventure," Johnson wrote in a post that highlighted the film’s first table read. "Feels emotionally appropriate for our beloved JUMANJI franchise to end on this beautiful grace note of our final film."

Jumanji 3 is set to be released in theaters on December 11, 2026.

Image credit: @hhgarcia41.

Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.

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