Movies Dwayne Johnson teases Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle's wild ride in new preview Get an exclusive look at the evolution of the 'Jumanji' sequel and how it honors the Robin Williams classic By Maureen Lee Lenker Maureen Lee Lenker Maureen Lee Lenker is a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly with over seven years of experience in the entertainment industry. An award-winning journalist, she's written for Turner Classic Movies, Ms. Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, and more. She's worked at EW for six years covering film, TV, theater, music, and books. The author of EW's quarterly romance review column, "Hot Stuff," Maureen holds Master's degrees from both the University of Southern California and the University of Oxford. Her debut novel, It Happened One Fight, is now available. Follow her for all things related to classic Hollywood, musicals, the romance genre, and Bruce Springsteen. EW's editorial guidelines Published on October 28, 2017 09:00PM EDT Welcome to the jungle — we’ve got Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and Karen Gillan. In an exclusive new look at the Jumanji sequel, which debuted Saturday night at Stan Lee’s Los Angeles Comic-Con, we get an in-depth look at the upcoming December release, including more information on its tightly-held plot details and a glimpse of some of the high-energy action sequences. At CinemaCon last spring, it was revealed that Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle will feature a video game, and the characters played by Johnson, Black, Hart, and Gillan are the avatars for high school teens who get sucked into the world of the game. “This is a game that will always find a way to be played,” Johnson now teases ominously in this sneak peek. “In the original [film], Jumanji came to our world. In this Jumanji, we go to them.” Johnson promises lots of thrills and laughs from the film calling his role “the most wonderful, awesome, bad-ass character I’ve ever played” and joking, “There are so many moments that are big laughs, and frankly, they all came from me.” Gillan (Guardians of the Galaxy) also promises major action sequences from the film, which we get a glimpse of in this new footage. “This film is packed full of amazing action sequences and it makes me look really cool,” she says. For those who are devotees of the original film, never fear. Johnson also explains how the sequel has evolved from the original title and pays homage to the first film and Robin Williams. “We wanted to make a movie that encapsulates what the holiday spirit really means — the spirit of wonderment and discovering who you are,” Johnson explains. “I have such a tremendous amount of love and reverence for the original movie and what Robin meant to my family. I loved it like the world loved it. We wanted to make sure the spirit of the original movie flowed through this continuation of the Jumanji story.” Watch the video above for a glimpse of the upcoming film. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle hits theaters on Dec. 20.