Jumanji: Open World promises 'one final game' — fans have heard that from Fast & Furious too
The new poster swears the franchise is ending. The franchise's box-office history is the reason nobody in the comments believes a word of it.
The poster for Jumanji: Open World arrived this week carrying the tagline "one final game," ahead of the film's December 25, 2026 release. The r/movies thread under it treated the promise with the respect it has earned:
"Bet lmfao"
— a commenter on r/movies, replying to the "one final game" tagline
"I don't think so, it took quite a while for this to come out after the last one. The franchise as a whole, sure, they'll eventually make some new Jumanji movie, but not with this cast."
— a commenter on r/movies
The skepticism has a model to point at. Universal announced Fast & Furious was entering its grand two-part finale back in 2021, and the concluding film has been promised, delayed, and re-dated ever since — "the end" turned out to be a marketing register, not a plan. Sony is a studio with even fewer franchises to spare, and the two modern Jumanji films are two of its biggest: Welcome to the Jungle made $962 million worldwide in 2017, The Next Level added $801.7 million in 2019, and nothing about $1.76 billion suggests a story that needs to end.
What "final" plausibly means
The honest reading is the one the second commenter gives: this cast is what's finishing, not the brand. The December film reunites everyone — Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Karen Gillan as the avatars, the original four teen players, Danny DeVito, Nick Jonas, and Awkwafina — and this time the game escapes into the real world while the avatars run in "demo mode." Jake Kasdan directs again, and the project took seven years to assemble, surviving a pandemic delay and Kasdan's detour through Red One.
A seven-year gap between installments is the kind of scheduling that ends an ensemble naturally. Johnson is 54, visibly leaner since his Smashing Machine transformation — the poster's slimmed-down Bravestone was the thread's second-biggest talking point — and wrangling four A-list calendars into one shoot clearly nearly didn't happen this time.
Sony moved Open World from December 11 to December 25 to dodge Avengers: Doomsday — scheduling care you spend on a franchise you intend to keep.
So the realistic forecast splits the difference with the marketing. Johnson, Hart, Black, and Gillan probably are playing their last round, and the tagline is technically true about them. The board game itself has now survived Robin Williams, a 22-year hiatus, and a format change from dice to cartridge to open world — betting on its retirement has been a losing position since 1995.
Previously we wrote: Some Street Fighter fans say Andrew Schulz is why they're skipping it — Miami Vice '85 cast him too