WARNING: Spoilers for the new ‘Jumanji’ movie below!
Apparently, a lot of thought went into how to end the new addition to the ‘Jumanji’ franchise, so much so that a few different endings to the film were envisioned, some of which the cast and crew have been kind enough to discuss with the press. Nick Jonas was apparently the first one to breach the subject of multiple endings while talking to Heat Vision, saying:
“There is that conversation of what could have happened…”
Which of course was continued by the film’s director, Jake Kasdan, who stated:
“We talked about different ways this story could continue.”
Then we got a few more details about these alternate endings from producer Matt Tolmach:
“We played with a bunch of different endings. There’s a trap when you make movies about games. You have to make sure they have stakes. We were very intent on making it clear that you could also not get out of the game. That idea was very important to us throughout.”
A specific alternate ending was revealed by Karen Gillian, who claims Dwayne Johnson’s character contemplating staying in the game at the end almost became an ending:
“In previous versions there was more of that where [Spencer] wanted to stay in the game with Martha. We made way more of that…It definitely could be interesting and would definitely leave it open to a sequel.”
Of course, Jack Black quipped that Johnson’s character wanted to stay in the game for totally different reasons:
“… [He] was the one who wanted to stay because he had the best avatar! He had Dwayne’s body with all of his strengths!”
Following that, apparently, there was another idea for an alternate ending revealed by Ser’Darius Blain, whose character gets sucked into the game and takes on the appearance of Kevin Hart. He claims:
“There were a few different ideas. Originally when Alex [Wolff] and Morgan [Turner] kiss, we start hearing the drums again and then everyone gets the game downloaded on their phones. Then it’s like, ‘Oh, shoot! We’re all going to be sucked in.’ That would have been a cool way to go.”
Lastly, Jack Black makes the argument that as far as a sequel is concerned, it does not really matter as it will really be up to how the movie is received by fans:
“Where there’s a will there’s a way. If the people love it and they want another one they’ll figure out how to do it.”
Did you see ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle?’ yet? What did you think? Would any of these endings have enhanced the movie, or did you like where it ended up? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
