Jumanji Sequel Adds Guardians of the Galaxy's Karen Gillan for a Major Role

With shooting for the untitled Jumanji reboot scheduled to begin next month, it's been confirmed today that Sony has brought on Guardians of the Galaxy's Karen Gillan (Nebula) to play a big role in the movie.

According to Deadline, Gillan is the "final piece of the casting puzzle" for the Jumanji sequel, which also stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Nick Jonas.

Gillan will play a character named Martha, but that's all we know about her at this point. According to Deadline, there was a months-long search for the role and she beat out "some serious A-list talent," though the report did not include any names.

Some of her previous credits include numerous episodes of Doctor Who, as well as the movies Selfie and Oculus. She will also be seen in this year's sci-fi thriller The Circle, which stars Tom Hanks and Emma Watson. She will play Nebula again in 2017's Guardians of the Galaxy 2.

The new Jumanji is slated to come out on July 28, 2017. It's directed by Jake Kasdan, the son of famous Star Wars writer Lawrence Kasdan, and is based on the Chris Van Allsburg book. Robin Williams starred in 1995's Jumanji and Johnson has said the new movie will honor the late actor.

Johnson recently confirmed that the new Jumanji is not a remake of the original movie, but rather a sequel, though it remains to be seen what the story will be. In the original, Williams' character became stuck in a board game as a young boy before being set free (along with other creatures and characters) in the modern day. Lots of craziness ensues, including elephants charging down main street. The movie ended with the Jumanji board game still existing, setting up a potential sequel.