Predictions about Bebe Neuwirth’s cameo in Jumanji: The Next Level

Bebe Neuwirth makes a surprise appearance at the end of Jumanji: The Next Level and it’s sparked some theories about the story still to come.

It’s been almost 25 years since Joe Johnston’s 1995 Jumanji film entered our lives, with the iconic, anxiety-inducing, beating drums in tow. With a 22-year age gap between the first Jumanji movie and director Jake Kasdan’s 2017 Jumaji: Welcome to the Jungle, it makes sense why some might have missed Bebe Neuwirth’s cameo in Jumanji: The Next Level. But the appearance of Neuwirth, who played Aunt Nora in the original Jumanji, has sparked some theories about more Jumanji films to come.

For those who haven’t gotten around to re-watching the “family film” that gave audiences other-worldly thrills and chills, here’s a bit of a refresher. After a young Alan Parrish discovers the game of Jumanji in a construction mound near his father’s shoe shop in Brantford, New Hampshire, the boy takes the game home to play with his school mate Sarah Whittle. The game, naturally, takes a turn (or roll) for the worst and Alan gets trapped inside the game while Sarah is chased out of the house by bats.

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Nora Shepherd (Neuwirth) moves into the Parrish house with her niece Judy (Kirsten Dunst) and nephew Peter (Bradley Pierce) after the children’s parents are killed in a car crash 26 years after Alan’s disappearance. As Judy and Peter start to play the game, facing the terrors of man-eating lions, destructive chimps and killer wasps, the children manage to release a much older Alan (Robin Williams) from the game. The three of them, joined by an older Sarah (Bonnie Hunt) are now responsible for winning the game or die trying.

Alan’s legacy lives on in Kasdan’s first film continuation, with homage being paid to the hut Alan made for himself during the two-and-a-half decades he was lost in Jumanji’s jungle, but not much else is said about the Parrish family or Shepherds, until this year’s third installation in the series.

Warning: this post contains some ending spoilers for all three Jumanji films. Read on at your own risk.

In the newest franchise installations, once again taking place in the city of Brantford, New Hampshire, four high school kids embark on another Jumanji adventure. But this time, Jumanji has turned itself into a video game. As Alan Parrish once told Sarah, “the game thinks.” Inside the bodies of their avatars, the four high school players (joined by Grandpa Eddie and his former business partner Milo in the latest film) are all lost in the jungle until they play their way out.

In Jumanji: The Next Level, once the players have escaped the game, everything seems to go back to normal. The four friends—Spencer, Fridge, Martha, and Bethany—meet at Grandpa Eddie’s former restaurant, which is now named “Nora’s Diner.” The owner comes out to greet Eddie (Danny Devito) and it’s non-other than Neuwirth as Aunt Nora. While she’s no longer Peter and Judy’s caretaker, since Alan and Sarah turned back time when they finished the game and prevented Peter and Judy’s parents from dying, Aunt Nora still managed to make her way to Brantford.

Neuwirth is the first of the original Jumanji cast to make a reappearance in the new films and it’s reasonable to assume that Kasdan has something up his sleeve for future films. It seems just too convenient that at the same time Aunt Nora is revealed to be living in Brantford, wild ostriches
are shown to have escaped from the now busted Jumanji video game (a treat revealed to those who stuck around after the credits).

Neuwirth’s appearance has stirred excitement from fans about what the old-school reference could mean for the next Jumanji film, from Dunst and Pierce reprising their roles as a grown-up Peter and Judy, to some even going so far as to hope for a CGI Robin Williams.

While these theories have yet to be confirmed, Dunst has expressed a strong interest in being a part of the remakes, saying to Entertainment Tonight, “That’d be fun…I would definitely do something in that if they wanted me to.” So far, Neuwirth is the only original cast member slated to be in the next Jumanji film and even that, apparently, was a spur-of-the-moment choice.

In an interview with Collider, Kasdan said:

"“…the idea of bringing Bebe into it was a late-breaking thing that, at the last minute, in the middle of the night I was working on sort of rewriting that scene and had this moment where I was like, ‘It should be here…I got so excited about that. But this is a way that we can connect these stories in the restaurant. We can call it Nora’s and we’ll get her. She’s the perfect person to do it.”"

Here’s what we know for sure about the next Jumanji film: Neuwirth will be reprising her role as Aunt Nora and may possibly be involved in a romantic relationship with Grandpa Eddie. The new Jumanji film will also take place in the real world, with wild jungle animals once again cutting lose in Brantford.

In addition to what we know, there’s an infinite number of theories to follow. Even though Alan and Sarah turned back the clock when they beat the game in the 1995 film, will the new film’s events trigger a lost memory for Aunt Nora? Will she have any memory of swimming with crocodiles, her house being covered in vines, and monkeys invading her car?

It also seems logical that Judy and Peter would make an appearance and possibly even Sarah who is no doubt still living at the old Parrish house. Perhaps, some connection will be made with the current cast and Alan and Sarah’s child (as Sarah was pregnant at the end of the first film).

Either way, it will be exciting to see the new Jumanji films take on such a nostalgic vibe. While the two latest film plots posed their own unique challenges for the players (like being killed by eating cake), Spencer, Fridge, Martha, and Bethany never had to face the jungle as avatars not equipped to survive as Alan had experienced.

Wild animals running through the streets of Brantford and wreaking havoc on convenience stores and police officers was part of what made the game of Jumanji so uncomfortable and terrifying. It’s one thing to be playing as an adventurous avatar, with certain skills that can help you survive in the jungle. But in the original Jumanji, it was a story about everyday people risking their necks against the dangers of rhino stampedes, giant spiders and flowers that shot poison darts.

While there’s no telling whether or not the Jumanji avatars—Ruby Roundhouse, Mouse Finbar, Shelly Oberon, and Dr. Smolder Bravestone—will also be released from the game, it’s evident that the next film will draw heavily from the original Jumanji roots.

What do you think is in store for the new Jumanji movie? Who else from the original cast would you like to see return? Let us know in the comments below!