Jumanji is a movie that’s earned its status as a ’90s classic. Not only does it feature one of Robin Williams‘ best performances, but it’s also genuinely terrifying for a family-oriented film. Jumanji is centered on a magical board game that starts summoning all kinds of jungle creatures, causing utter chaos and resulting in some sheer nightmare fuel. It also gave birth to a franchise, with Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle premiering in 2017 and Jumanji: The Next Level following in 2019, with both sequels shifting their focus to video games. However, there’s another Jumanji-adjacent film that fans of the original might not know about, and that’s Zathura: A Space Adventure. Zathura features a premise that might sound familiar to fans of Jumanji: when they’re home alone, brothers Walter (Josh Hutcherson) and Danny (Jonah Bobo) discover an old game named “Zathura” in their closet. When Danny starts playing the game, it catapults them into space, forcing them to complete the game if they want to survive. However, Zathura‘s connections to Jumanji are deeper than you might realize, even if director Jon Favreau downplayed them.
‘Zathura’ Is Based on the Direct Sequel to ‘Jumanji’, but Jon Favreau Downplayed the Connections
Zathura, like Jumanji, is based on a children’s book by Chris Van Allsburg. It’s also the direct sequel to Jumanji and picks up where Jumanji left off with Walter and Danny attempting to play the game before discovering Zathura. Their parents are also friends with the parents of Judy and Peter Shepard, providing another strong link to Zathura. But Jon Favreau wouldn’t touch upon those connections, as he admitted in an interview that he wasn’t a fan of the original Jumanji and wanted Zathura to stand alone since it was a different genre: “I don’t want to mislead people to think this is a sequel, whether you liked the first movie and hope to see more of it, or didn’t like it and wouldn’t want to see anything related to it.” Instead, Favreau pointed to a host of other films that influenced him, including Superman and Battle Beyond the Stars. He also used the same techniques from those films to bring Zathura to life—quite literally, since most of the film was made using practical effects, including work from makeup artist extraordinaire Stan Winston. From a rogue robot that chases Danny to the menace of the scaly alien invaders, the Zorgons, everything in Zathura feels tactile in a way few modern blockbusters do.
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The other element that makes Zathura work is the dynamic between its cast. Josh Hutcherson and Danny Bobo feel like actual brothers, whether they’re bickering or working together. Dax Shepard plays a major role in Zathura‘s back half, even lending the film its biggest (and most emotional) plot twist. Kristen Stewart is the center of one of the best sight gags (courtesy of Winston) and also plays the role of “beleaguered older sister” perfectly. Stewart would recall her experience on Zathura while talking with Screen Rant, saying,
“That movie was stacked, if you think about it. We were all little. Yeah, when I think about that movie, I think it was the only time I ever shot on a studio lot. Uh, second time. But it was so fun. It was like make-believe to the largest degree.”
But even though Zathura was crafted with an old-school sensibility, it just didn’t stack up in the modern-day box office.
‘Zathura’ Bombed at the Box Office, but Its Cast and Crew Saw Their Careers Skyrocket
Zathura would end up flopping at the box office, though it was less because it was a bad film (it isn’t) and more because of bad timing. It premiered in between Chicken Little, which had the full might of Disney’s marketing magic behind it, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which premiered a week after its release. Part of it was also due to how Sony marketed the movie, hyping up connections to Jumanji that weren’t in the final film. Chris Van Allsburg said that Zathura‘s stumbles were due to a “competitive” film slate. Jon Favreau was far blunter: “I learned a tremendous amount about visual effects; the grim reality of the movie business hit me like a bucket of cold water.”
Years later, Jack Black would point out that Zathura and Jumanji are connected, even hinting that Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle could pave the way for a return to that world. Zathura also wound up catapulting its cast and crew to fame, as Favreau would later kick off the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Iron Man and revitalize the Star Wars universe with The Mandalorian. Favreau even brought some of the Zathura crew to work on Iron Man, including longtime Marvel Studios producer Louis D’Esposito. Kristen Stewart and Josh Hutcherson, ironically enough, would find success in the young adult genre with Twilight and The Hunger Games, respectively. Time has been kind to Zathura as well as its cast and crew, and it deserves a second look.