The Jonas Brothers are kicking off the holidays with their very own Christmas movie, but the idea for A Very Jonas Christmas Movie began during talks for the other film they’ve been working on this year. Maybe you’ve heard of it. It’s called Camp Rock 3.
Actually, if we’re getting technical, the idea for a Christmas movie originally got tossed around about 15 years ago, while making the first two Camp Rock films, Nick Jonas tells Deadline.
“When we were first working with Disney…while we were doing Camp Rock and our TV show, we discussed a lot of ideas of other things we wanted to do, and one of those ideas was a Christmas film, but it never came together back then,” he explained. “So cut to 15 years later, we find ourselves teaming up with Disney again to work on Camp Rock 3, producing that and doing a little cameo in it. Then we opened up the conversation again about the Christmas movie, and the creative team came to us with an incredible take, just this whole idea of us trying to get home for Christmas after being stranded in Europe.”
From there, A Very Jonas Christmas Movie was born. The film follows Nick, Kevin and Joe Jonas as they are wrapping up part of their tour in London just before Christmas and are set to go their separate ways to spend the holidays with their families when they unwittingly run into Santa. Or, Jesse Tyler Ferguson looking a lot like Santa, who secretly uses a little holiday magic to ensure the emotionally distant brothers cannot make it back to New York in time for the holidays unless they find their way back to each other first.
In some ways, underneath the wackiness and the jokes, the Disney+ film is pretty autobiographical. The three brothers have been open about the rifts that grew between them in the earlier days of fame that led them to pursue solo careers. In 2019, they reunited as a band and have been working as a trio again ever since.
“They were so wonderfully open with us. They’ve also been sort of very open with their fans. Those documentaries they did were really, really helpful,” Isaac Aptaker, who wrote and produced A Very Jonas Christmas Movie with Elizabeth Berger, said. “We just sat with the guys and had meals and Zooms while they were in Australia and all over the world to talk about: What’s it like to work with your brothers [for] 20 years? What’s it like to have young children and be on the road so much. What are the real challenges of this that we can explore?”
Make no mistake, though. This is also a very silly movie. There’s exploding airplanes. There’s KJ Apa taking shirtless selfies to impress his ex-girlfriend, played by Billie Lourd, who is also the brothers’ distraught (and not very good at her job) travel agent who is trying to get them home amid the chaos. There’s Randall Park as the brothers’ competent but very-much-in-need-of-a-break manager who is ghosting them in their time of need to take a vacation.
There’s also a cameo from Will Ferrell, who is dragging his family to yet another Jonas Brothers concert, because who wouldn’t want to go to another Jonas Brothers concert?!
Aptaker said that the Jonas family’s connections in Hollywood, like their friendship with the Ferrell family, “made casting this thing a total treat.”
Speaking of the Jonas family, the film doesn’t just feature Kevin, Joe and Nick. It’s a whole family affair. Once the brothers reconcile, they decide to spend Christmas altogether, rather than fractured. At the end of the film, they arrive home to a house filled with their brother Frankie Jonas, their parents Denise and Kevin, Nick’s wife Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Kevin’s wife Danielle Jonas, and all of the kids.
Oh, and there’s one more addition: Chloe Bennet. She plays a family friend who Joe reconnects with amid the brothers’ European escapade. The sparks start flying pretty immediately, so Kevin and Nick decide to invite her to their family’s Christmas celebration as well.
So, while Kevin says filming the final scene of the movie felt “just like Christmas,” Joe remembers it as “incredibly awkward.”
“The first scene in the movie, the first shot we filmed, was — spoiler alert — but there’s a kissing scene with me, Chloe Bennet and my entire family. My actual, real entire family. It was probably more awkward for her than me, but still not something you expect to do day one,” he laughed.
A Very Jonas Christmas Movie also features new music. Joe says “there was always some talk of having some songs,” but somewhere along the way, it evolved into a proper musical.
Berger adds that the evolution happened “really early on” in the development process and, in fact, was part of what enticed her and Aptaker to the project.
“When we wrote the script, we wrote it as a musical, and we sort of paused in-script to note where the musical numbers would be [and] what they should be about,” she explained. “We got the brilliant and prolific Justin Tranter on board as our songwriter, along with his incredible team, and then we just started this collaboration where we would work very closely with Justin and with the guys to fine tune these things until they were really ready. But it was very much baked into the premise of this from very early on.”
For fans, there is something nostalgic about seeing the Jonas Brothers in a Disney movie-musical in 2025.
Before their 2019 documentary Chasing Happiness, the last time anyone saw them on screen together was Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam. So, the fact that they’re not only starring in another Disney project, but that it was born from the revival of that beloved franchise from the early days of their career is not only exciting but, honestly, a little trippy, they say.
“Sometimes it feels like a Jonas Brother Black Mirror episode,” Joe admits. “When we showed up to Camp Rock, we were like, ‘This is really weird. This is very bizarre to be back here.’ To see these young people crushing it, doing these back flips and singing their little hearts out was really impressive…it’s pinch me moments.”
A Very Jonas Christmas Movie is streaming now on Disney+.
