Dwayne Johnson shares 'Jumanji' footage at CinemaCon

March 29 (UPI) -- Dwayne Johnson shared the first footage of the Jumanji sequel at CinemaCon this week.

The 44-year-old gave fans a glimpse of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, showing a "crowd-pleasing" clip that begins with four high school students in detention cleaning out the basement of their school, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The group discovers an old video game console with the game Jumanji, which allows them to pick a character.

The game transforms the students into their chosen character and transports them to a jungle. One "nerdy" boy is "surprised" to see he has the muscles of Johnson, while a "popular girl" is "horrified" to be in the body of Jack Black.

"Surprising the CinemaCon crowd with the world premiere first ever seen footage of #JUMANJI," Johnson wrote on Instagram prior to the convention. "Let's rock and roll and have some fun."

Welcome to the Jungle is a spiritual sequel to the 1995 movie Jumanji, which starred late actor Robin Williams. Johnson said in August that the film will "properly introduce a whole new generation to the fun and crazy Jumanji universe."

"This new movie will NOT be a remake or reboot of the original," he clarified. "It will be a continuation of the awesome Jumanji adventure 20 years later."

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle opens in theaters Dec. 22. The movie co-stars Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan and Nick Jonas.