The Jumanji franchise is a fan-favorite franchise now. Based on the book of the same name by author Chris Van Allsburg, it all started when Robin Williams starred in the first movie in 1995. Despite receiving mixed reviews the movie was a commercial success and has now become a cult classic, leading to spin-offs like Zathura: A Space Adventure and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017).
While the franchise has since been taken over by the very capable Dwayne Johnson, there was once a time when the author was forced to write a spin-off to stop the studio from creating an allegedly absurd sequel to the original movie, that could have seriously tarnished his legacy.
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Jumanji Author Reveals Studio’s Plan To Have A Preposterous Sequel
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When Robin Willaims’ starrer Jumanji was released back in 1995, nobody could have imagined that it would be as big as it is now, for the movie received numerous critical reviews for its dystopian plot. However, the movie became a commercial hit, generating $262 million worldwide against a measly budget of $65 million.
Seeing the success of the movie, Author Chris Van Allsburg revealed that the makers wanted to create a preposterous sequel titled Jumanji: The White House. It would have followed the first film where the game ended up in Normandy, where the President of the United States buys it from an antique shop as a souvenir for his kids.
As Allsburg describes to SYFY in a recent interview, it also featured a gorilla climbing up the Washington Monument as a homage to King Kong among other crazy things. The author apparently hated the suggested sequel so much that he decided to write a sequel at the behest of a producer.
Apart from this sequel, there was another one that featured a rundown circus using the game to increase their profits, which would have featured Robin Williams as a CGI Toad. Well, both the sequels had the chance to diminish the late actor’s legacy and thus, fortunately never took off, although Allsburg thinks the second scorched sequel would have turned out great.
Jumanji Author Was Compelled To Write Spin-Off To Stop Absurd Sequel From Happening
Upon the suggestion of one producer, Chris Van Allsburg went back to his pile of research about games and came up with his book Zathura which later inspired the movie Zathura: A Space Adventure. As he states to SYFY, the author made the popular board game double-sided.
Having written a one-page proposal he promptly sent it to the studio, hoping they would stall the plans for the ludicrous Jumanji sequel.
“I thought if Sony saw that the author of the original material was publishing a book that was a space adventure game called Zathura, where a house went to outer space, maybe that would at least give them pause and reconsider.”
Well, the studio did reconsider and put plans in place to have the movie made. And thus was born the lesser-known, and commercially failed movie, directed by Jon Favreau. While Zathura: A Space Adventure has since become a cult classic, the franchise has now led to the popular spin-off starring Dwayne Johnson and Jack Black.
Jumanji is available to stream on Peacock while Zathura can be rented on Amazon Prime.
