After the success of his Christmas comedy “Elf,” Jon Favreau determined to modify issues up by taking over “Zathura.” Whereas “Jumanji” leans into its supply materials’s comedic features, “Zathura” is a way more mature manufacturing specializing in the challenges of rising up. In reality, “Zathura” is crammed with issues that solely adults will discover, because it’s ripe with symbolism and themes which may go over kids’s heads.
Whereas each initiatives come from the identical creator, it was essential for Favreau that “Zathura” was seen and interpreted as a venture separate from the ’90s comedy. “It is complicated as a result of [the books are] written by the identical man they usually each share the motif of improbable occasions emanating from a recreation,” he informed The Los Angeles Every day Information in 2005 when discussing the similarities between each movies “However, by the identical token, ‘Zathura’ has a really completely different sensibility, shares not one of the similar characters, and takes place on the opposite facet of the nation.”
Whereas many have debated for years if “Zathura” is a stealth “Jumanji” sequel, Favreau cleared the confusion up years in the past. “I do not need to mislead individuals to suppose this can be a sequel, whether or not you preferred the primary film and hope to see extra of it, or did not prefer it and would not need to see something associated to it,” he stated, definitively confirming that “Zathura” is a standalone spin-off.