The Rock Pledges Jumanji Reboot Will Honour Robin Williams.

At the end of last year it was confirmed that Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson would be taking the lead role in a reboot of the 1995 adventure comedy movie Jumanji. Many fans of the original were critical of the timing of the announcement, (less than two years after the untimely passing of Robin Williams), with many others protesting that a reboot was wholly unnecessary.

Now The Rock has allayed fan’s fears by stating on Instagram that the re-imagining would definitely honour Robin Williams and his Jumanji character Alan Parrish, he wrote:

An important thing that I want to be honest and bring up is Robin Williams. The love and respect I have for this man is boundless. You have my word, we will honor his name and the character of “Alan Parrish” will stand alone and be forever immortalized in the world of JUMANJI in an earnest and cool way. I have an idea of what to do and I think his family will be proud. I also think Robin is somewhere lookin’ down and laughing, remembering the first time we met backstage and I (for the first time ever) was a star struck bumbling idiot that couldn’t even get my words out. Idiot. He literally calmed me down w/ that smile and laugh. But that’s for another fun story down the road.

It seems production on this reboot is gathering pace with director Jake Kasdan, (Bad Teacher) confirmed with Jack Black and Kevin Hart on board to co-star. It’s understood that the reboot will have a bigger cast of characters from the original with now five confirmed roles.

The Jumanji reboot has been slated for a July 28th, 2017 release.