The statues in the jungle set are modeled after the board game pieces in the original Jumanji (1995).
If Dwayne Johnson could play any other role in the film, he'd play Jack Black's character, Bethany. Johnson said, "I know how much fun [Jack] had every day playing a 16-year-old self-obsessed girl."
Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart are known for their intensive workout routines, but it was Karen Gillan - whose character is an expert in various martial arts and "dance fighting" - who did the most extensive work with the stunt team to learn the fight choreography for her scenes.
Jack Black had a lot of fun as Bethany teaching Karen Gillan's character to flirt. "I was teaching her how to flirt and how to work it, runway style. It was like a living organism kind of scene where some of it was on the page, but a lot was just happening in real time."
Tom Holland was originally cast as Seaplane McDonough, but had to drop out of the film due to scheduling conflicts with Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017). So Nick Jonas was cast in his place.
Dwayne Johnson: [wrestling] There are several incidents in the film that reference Johnson's athletic/wrestling career: during the Bazaar scene, while fighting and calling out his actions, Bravestone dispatches one of Van Pelt's henchmen by using his wrestling finisher, the Rock Bottom (a body slam move). Fridge's football jersey reads #94. Johnson was formerly a football player at the University of Miami with his jersey reading #94. Finbar says that Bravestone is 6'5 tall and weighs 270 pounds. Those are Johnson's actual height and weight. At one point, Bravestone refers to himself in third person and the other characters comment about it. One of Johnson's WWE persona "The Rock"'s character traits is speaking about himself in third person, "Do you smell what The Rock is cookin'?" Finally, Alex was sucked into the game in the year of The Rock's first WWE match in real life.