I've been burned by untrue rumors before, so you'll have to forgive me for not jumping right on the bandwagon of celebration as soon as this was even a whisper. However, we now have official confirmation that Dwayne Johnson will star in the Jumanji reboot. Fist pumps all 'round, because that's how I imagine The Rock celebrates. Like I said, there had been words on the wind for a few days now suggesting that he and Kevin Hart would be featured in the remake, but I hate getting my hopes up for no reason, so I wanted to wait until we had it straight from the source. And now we do. Even better, it's not some dry statement from a studio head confirming the rumors, it's hot off of Johnson's Instagram page, hashtags and all.
On Apr. 22, Johnson uploaded a photo of himself and gave us such an embarrassment of riches in the caption that I almost don't know what to do with myself. Through his use of tagging and hashtagging that even a 2016 youth could be proud of, Johnson revealed not only that he's in the film, but that it has a script — and one he loves, by the way — that he's tightening up with his production team. It also has a producer, whom he shouts out as Matt Tomach, and director Jake Kasdan, it has yet to cast, and it shoots this fall.
So, right off the bat, we have an explanation for why Jumanji 's original release date of Christmas 2016 was pushed back to Jul. 28, 2017, but it's hard to care about that when Johnson is giving us all this additional info to soothe our excitable brains. Here's the post in its entirety.
Apparently, the delay had to do with the insane shooting schedules for Rampage, Ballers, Baywatch, and Fast 8, all of which are taking place this summer, and which Johnson references in the post, but it seems like it's all laid out now and on track for its scheduled release. Johnson is an immense talent, and a Jumanji remake with him involved is super to be a fun project. It probably won't hold the same space in anyone's heart as the origin film starring Robin Williams, but that's no reason to dismiss it yet. It sounds great so far, so optimism commencing.
