Are Zathura: A Space Adventure and Jumanji connected, or is the fact that both movies are centered around deadly reality-warping board games just a coincidence? In 1995, Jumanji told the story of Peter (Bradley Pierce) and Judy (Kirsten Dunst), two siblings who start playing the mysterious "Jumanji" tabletop game they find in the attic, which summons all kinds of jungle-related threats. One of these invocations is Alan Parrish (Robin Williams), who was absorbed by the game and thrown into the jungle when he attempted to play it 26 years earlier. With his help, they must endure all the wild challenges and beat the game in order to revert the spells.
Ten years later, Jon Favreau's Zathura: A Space Adventure delivered an oddly similar premise. This time, brothers Danny (Jonah Bobo) and Walter (Josh Hutcherson) come across a mysterious board game in their basement. As the movie's title suggests, the boys and their older sister Lisa (Kristen Stewart) are transported to outer space. To return, they have to face several sci-fi-themed obstacles the game throws at them and win. The game also provides them with the help of an astronaut (Dax Shepard), who turns out to be an older Walter from another timeline, trapped in space by the game for fifteen years.
Although it isn't uncommon to notice the similarities, Zathura is rarely mentioned in regards to the Jumanji franchise, and Jumanji's direct sequels Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Jumanji: The Next Level have helped distance it even more. But with a turn-based board game, thematic hazards, and an older savior figure who escapes the game's curse years after being trapped by it, Zathura could very well be the first sequel to the original Jumanji. The truth is, Zathura and Jumanji are indeed connected. Both movies are based on author Chris Van Allsburg's illustrated children's books of the same name, and Zathura picks up where Jumanji leaves off in the source material. In the Zathura book, Danny and Walter acquire the Jumanji board right after Judy and Peter beat the game. Danny isn't interested in it but discovers another game hiding underneath it: Zathura.
In fact, the ending of the Jumanji book reveals that both sets of siblings are neighbors and even shows how Peter and Judy watch Danny and Walter take the game home. This narrative overlap is not present in either movie, but Zathura still used the connection from the source material to market itself as a sequel to the 1995 Jumanji movie. To this day, Zathura stands as an official part of the Jumanji franchise, albeit a very distant one that's widely regarded only as a "spiritual successor".
Director Jon Favreau always intended to dissociate Zathura: A Space Adventure from any connection to Jumanji, as he considered each story to be quite different. Chris Van Allsburg has also has supported this idea. Besides, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Jumanji: The Next Level have been popularly regarded as the second and third installments in the film franchise, respectively. However, none of this has prevented many fans from giving Zathura an honorary spot in the Jumanji series, including Jack Black, who plays Professor Shelly Oberon in the Jumanji sequels. Either way, the stories leave enough freedom for each viewer to decide whether to include it in the same fictional universe or not.