While sandbox-style video game Minecraft has been part of the pop culture panorama for over 11 years and continues to enjoy a young fanbase that wasn’t even alive when it launched, its ubiquitous cash-in strategy—be it with toys and other knickknacks—has yet to utilize the big screen. Of course, that wasn’t for a lack of trying, and, after overcoming COVID-era obstacles, the franchise’s multi-medium designs will soon add a long-sought movie to its mix. Moreover, it might just wrangle Aquaman himself, Jason Momoa, as its hulking headliner.
Movie audiences will soon find themselves defaulted to proverbial spectator mode upon the release of the Minecraft movie, which according to THR, studio Warner Bros. is moving out of pandemic-era project purgatory with director Jared Hess appointed. The selection of the helmer brings the project the man who, upon breaking out big in 2004 with cult-revered comedy Napoleon Dynamite, went on to direct 2006’s Nacho Libre and 2009’s Gentleman Broncos. Yet, he has not released a major feature since the 2016 ensemble heist comedy Masterminds. Of course, the notable narrative here is that this film adaptation, for what is generally regarded as a kids’ franchise, is looking to have one of the most prominent big-screen badasses of today, Jason Momoa, as its star. Indeed, the trade says that Momoa is “in final negotiations” for the film’s unnamed lead role.
Minecraft, for those not in the know, is a highly pixelated, 8-bit-resembling 3D open-world video game—now available on just about all platforms—that allows players (usually with its signature pickaxe,) to extract materials from its dynamic, nearly unlimited algorithm-generated environment to create buildings and assorted simple machines; an aspect that renders it an educational tool in addition to its leisurely qualities. The game, which officially launched back in November 2011, currently enjoys a user base of around 140 million and doesn’t look to be slowing down, despite the game’s decade-plus age. As if one needed further evidence of just how deeply the game has invaded culture, a simple stroll down the toy aisles of any retail store will yield an array of Minecraft-based memorabilia.
Regardless, the movie’s apparent selection of Jason Momoa—rather than some enigmatically eccentric comedian—as its would-be star is a curious choice. However, nothing is known about the film, and, like the game itself, its story is open to an unlimited array of tonally diverse possibilities due to the limited plot of the source material. Yet, Mamoa’s value as a star might have been prioritized for the project. After all, he continues to be one of the most highly sought action stars out there, as evidenced by his recent attachment to another action institution entry, the 2023-scheduled Fast & Furious 10, in which he’ll join some fellow comic book movie stars (albeit ones for Marvel,) in Brie Larson (Captain Marvel) and Vin Diesel (the voice of Guardians of the Galaxy’s Groot), and will share the screen with a Game of Thrones alumna in Nathalie Emmanuel. Having fielded a recent, imminently recurring role in last year’s Dune, Mamoa will soon return to the sea as the trident-waving King of Atlantis for DC Comics solo film sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which is currently scheduled for release on March 17, 2023.
While the Minecraft movie has yet to announce an attached screenwriter, director Jared Hess is currently joined on the film by producers Mary Parent and Roy Lee, both of whom worked on Mamoa’s Dune. The late Jill Messick, who developed the project back in 2018, will receive credit posthumously. Names such as Jon Spaihts, Cale Boyter and Jon Berg are also credited as executive producers. Additionally, Mojang Studios, the (eventually Microsoft-acquired) Swedish development house of the video game, is represented here by producers Lydia Winters and Vu Bui.
There’s no release window disclosed for the Minecraft movie as of yet.
