Plans for aMinecraftmovie were first announced in 2014. Yes, it has taken them that long. However,after cycling through directorsandsailing past its planned release date in 2022, it seemed safe to assume the big screen adaptation of Minecraft was no more. Butits first trailer has recently debutedand confirmed a release date of July 12, 2025. Three years after it was supposed to be here, and more than a decade after work on it began. And people accuse video games of having long turnarounds.
With stars like Jason Momoa and Jack Black - who is now contractually obliged to play a leading role in every video game movie - among its star-studded cast, it was almost impossible to know what to expect until that first trailer hit. Turns out Momoa and his supporting cast aren’t voicing animated characters but will be live-action in a blocky Minecraft world. Even Black, who plays Steve, is just himself wearing a light blue t-shirt. He didn’t even shave the beard.
Needless to say, that has rubbed a few of you the wrong way. I can understand why, especially afterwatching the fanmade recreation of the trailerwhere all of the actors have been turned into animated Minecraft characters. That’s not the only example of Minecraft’s characters and surrounding environments fans have been pointing to since the trailer dropped. There’s also Story Mode, an episodic Minecraft adventure created with help fromTelltale Games, with some suggesting that approach would have been a better way to go for a full movie.
Minecraft Won’t Be The Next Sonic
There’s evidence in situations like these that the studios responsible are listening and, if your complaints are loud enough, something will be done. TakeSonic, one of the adaptations responsible for turning public opinion on video game movies. The initial design for the live-action movie Sonic was bad. Real bad. So bad the reactionsforced Paramount and Sega to delay the movie and redesign the Blue Blur.
The thing is, Minecraft ain’t Sonic. Sonic needed to appeal to adults and kids alike since it leaned on the nostalgia of the former to potentially bring in more of the latter. I took my little cousin to see the first Sonic movie and she has been a Sonic fan ever since. While a huge chunk of Minecraft players are adults, the bulk of its player base, and the audience Warner Bros. cares about, are kids.
As long as the Minecraft movie appeals to kids, and it will, then it will be a success. I’m certain the movie will do well with kids because not only do I live with a Minecraft-obsessed four-year-old, but when I walk him to school each morning, it’s a sea of Minecraft merch everywhere you look. Minecraft backpacks, lunchboxes, kids talking about stuff they’ve built and found, pretending the real world around them is made up of Minecraft blocks and filled with its characters and creatures. All of them will want to see this movie, and we’ll be seeing it too since we’re the one who will have to take them. Almost 25 years to the day and making my dad take me to see the firstPokemonmovie has finally come back around to bite me.
It’s Already Very Clear Who The Minecraft Movie Is For
I’m not a Minecraft fan so when I saw the trailer for the first time, I was neither excited nor offended. However, when I showed it to my son, he hit the roof. He’s not bothered about Momoa and his terrible wig. The realisation he was watching a trailer from the Minecraft movie quickly turned to him jumping up and down behind me on the sofa as he ran me through what we were seeing. Excitedly pointing out the Piglins, correcting me when I called the Creeper a zombie, and laughing hysterically at the llama at the end. He even questioned how they were making stuff rather than critiquing it which I’ve seen a lot of since the trailer dropped, and gasped when Black proclaimed himself to be Steve. I thought he’d be impressed when I told him that’s the same guy who plays Bowser in theMariomovie, but that just seemed to confuse him.
Of course (like Sonic), there are movies that appeal to children and adults. Minecraft should have been one of them. So far, that doesn’t seem to be the case, but Warner Bros. is unlikely to mind as it’s more concerned about kids liking the Minecraft movie than adults. There’s a reason WB has cast world famous actors like Black and Momoa and has a Beatles track playing in the trailer, and it’s not to impress my four-year-old son. But the jokes, the references, they’re all for the kids. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter too much how we feel about them. By this time next year, Minecraft will likely be the second highest-grossing video game movie of all time.
I’m going to end up having that last sentence quoted back to me a lot if this thing fails, aren’t I?
