Sony Pictures has unveiled a brief trailer preview for the highly-anticipated Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, to get fans ready for the first full trailer that will arrive on Thursday, June 29. Unfortunately, this trailer preview doesn't feature any footage at all, just a glimpse at the movie's official logo along with the tagline, "The Game That Plays You." This trailer preview comes almost exactly two months after the first Jumanji footage was shown to exhibitors at CinemaCon, which revealed that this movie will put a whole new twist on the original book by Chris Van Allsburg, and the movie it was based on.
In a brand new Jumanji adventure, the tables are turned as four teenagers are sucked into Jumanji's world, pitted against rhinos, black mambas and an endless variety of jungle traps and puzzles. To survive, they'll play as characters from the game: meek Spencer becomes a brave explorer (Dwayne Johnson); hulky jock Fridge becomes a tiny genius (Kevin Hart); It-girl Bethany becomes a bookworm professor (Jack Black); and unathletic Martha becomes an amazonian warrior (Karen Gillan). To beat the game and return to the real world with their lives, they'll have to start seeing things in an entirely different way.
When the first cast photos were released, showcasing actress Karen Gillan wearing quite the skimpy costume, while her male counterparts were fully dressed, the actress spoke out on social media, revealing there is a reason she's wearing "child-sized clothes." There had been speculated that her character was trapped within the original board game as a child, hence the "child-sized clothes," but it was revealed that she is simply playing a female adventurer character that is part of the Jumanji video game, not a board game, which is an apparent nod to Lara Croft from Tomb Raider.
The footage shown at CinemaCon revealed that the four teenagers, Spencer (Alex Wolff), Bethany (Madison Iseman), Fridge (Ser'Darius Blain) and Martha (Morgan Turner) are stuck in detention together, in a scene said to be similar to The Breakfast Club. Part of their detention duties is to clean out the school's basement, where they find an old-school video game console with Jumanji: The Video Game, where each teenager picks avatars that turn out to be the opposite of themselves. Unfortunately, we don't get to see any of this in the trailer preview that debuted on Jumanji Twitter, but the first full trailer will arrive in just two full days.
There has also been talk about the movie connecting to the original 1995 Jumanji movie starring the late Robin Williams, and last month, Jack Black revealed what that connection was. The actor says that the characters are trying to figure out the game, when they discover all of these clues left behind by Robin William's character, Dr. Will Parrish, who had also built "a full-blown jungle house" that he compared to Swiss Family Robinson. The cast also includes Nick Jonas, Rhys Ifans, Missi Pyle, Bobby Cannavale, Rhys Darby and Tim Matheson. Sony has set a December 20 release date for Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, directed by Jake Kasdan, which comes between Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Ferdinand on December 15, and Bastards, Downsizing and Pitch Perfect 3 on December 22. Take a look at this brief trailer preview for Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, and check back Thursday for the first full trailer.