The 2017 movie Karen Gillan considered borderline sacrilegious: “Why would you do that?”
Actor Karen Gillan has recalled her initial disbelief when Sony announced plans to reboot Jumanji in 2017, admitting she questioned why anyone would tamper with a beloved childhood favourite before being won over by the script. Her comments resurface as the franchise prepares to release its third instalment, Jumanji: Open World, in cinemas on 25th December, continuing Hollywood's reliance on established franchises over original ideas.
Gillan told Entertainment Weekly that reading the script changed her mind, convincing her the filmmakers had found an "inventive and original" way to honour the 1995 original while updating it. That approach proved commercially successful: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle grossed $963 million worldwide in 2017, while its 2019 sequel, The Next Level, took $800 million, prompting the studio to press ahead with a third film despite the character-driven video-game concept having largely run its course creatively.
- Karen Gillan initially doubted rebooting Jumanji before reading the script.
- The 2017 and 2019 reboots grossed $963m and $800m respectively.
- Third instalment, Jumanji: Open World, arrives in cinemas on 25 December.
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Karen Gillan is a Scottish actor best known for playing Nebula in the Marvel films and for starring in Sony's Jumanji reboot series, which reimagines the 1995 fantasy film in which a magical board game unleashes chaos. The reboot recast the story as a video game that transports players into the bodies of avatar characters, with Gillan, Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart and Jack Black among the leads.
The first two instalments, Welcome to the Jungle (2017) and The Next Level (2019), were huge box-office hits, together taking in well over a billion dollars worldwide. That success has led Sony to make a third film, Jumanji: Open World, due in cinemas on 25th December, continuing a wider trend in Hollywood of studios favouring sequels and reboots of known properties over new, original stories.