Source: Entertainment Weekly

Dwayne Johnson is ensuring the Jumanji franchise continues to honor its original star.

The Moana actor shared a video on Instagram to celebrate the first day of shooting on the fourth Jumanji film, and revealed that one of his costume’s accessories doubles as an Easter egg paying tribute to Robin Williams, who headlined the original 1995 fantasy adventure.

“This is the dice from the original Jumanji with Robin Williams as a show of respect,” Johnson said while showing off a woven necklace with a worn-down board game die at its center. “[It’s] a way of honoring Robin and this entire franchise that he started as we film our very last Jumanji. The big finale. Here we go, let’s shoot.”

Williams’ character, Alan Parrish, was sucked into an adventure board game as a child due to an unlucky dice roll at the beginning of the 1995 film. Later in the movie, Alan reemerges as an adult after being trapped in the world of the game for decades.

The franchise was later revived in the 2010s with a new set of characters who are whisked away into the world of Jumanji, though the titular game evolved from a board game to an old-school video game in the newer films. Those movies starred Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Karen Gillan, and Nick Jonas as the video game avatars adopted by high school gamers.

The franchise’s second film — 2017’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, which marked Johnson’s first entry in the series — also paid tribute to Williams’ character by visiting Alan’s home in the world of the game. In the sequel, Alex (Jonas) tells the other characters that he has been living in a treehouse that was originally built by Alan during his time trapped in the game. The treehouse also features a carving that says “Alan Parrish was here.”

Elsewhere in his Instagram video, Johnson expressed his excitement to shoot the film in Los Angeles. “I have not shot a film in Los Angeles in…I don’t know when,” he said in the video. “So it feels so good to bring a production back home to Los Angeles and have our hardworking crew sleep in their own bed every night. Very cool, and especially just a big, fun movie like Jumanji.”

The fourth (and supposedly final) Jumanji will bring back all of the core cast from Welcome to the Jungle, including Hart, Black, Gillan, and Jonas, as well as the younger actors who played their real-world counterparts: Alex Wolff, Morgan Turner, Ser’Darius Blain, and Madison Iseman.

Additionally, Awkwafina and Danny DeVito, who joined the franchise in 2019’s Jumanji: The Next Level, will also return for the new film. Bebe Neuwirth, who played a supporting role in the original 1995 movie and cameoed in the same role in The Next Level, is also returning for the fourth installment.

Jake Kasdan, who directed the two previous entries in the series, will return to helm Jumanji 4. The sequel is scheduled to release in theaters on Dec. 11, 2026.

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