Some habits die hard, and now Jack Black has reverted back to being a gamer, falling deep into Minecraft to prepare for his upcoming role as Steve in the animated adaption of the insanely popular game.
Jack Black recently explained to IGN, “An actor prepares so I have literally been exclusive to Minecraft for the last month and a half. All Minecraft all the time…Just Steve-in’ it up in the Minecraft universe, getting back into it – because I did play years ago because my kids were super duper into it and I wanted to speak their language. So I studied hard and I learned and I was getting really into it, building houses and tunneling around…Now I’m getting back into it and it’s pretty rad.” Now we’re wondering just how deep Black will get into the Super Mario Bros. franchise now that a sequel has been announced…
In addition to Jack Black, Minecraft has a pretty stacked cast of voice actors, with the likes of Jason Momoa, Danielle Brooks, Jennifer Coolidge, Kate McKinnon, Jermaine Clement, and Emma Myers signed on. The movie is directed by Napoleon Dynamite’s Jared Hess, whose debut animated feature Thelma the Unicorn arrives in May. But Hess isn’t the first director to have been tied to a Minecraft movie, as previous iterations found Shawn Levy, Rob McElhenney and Peter Sollett attached. At one point, Steve Carell was linked to a voice role.
Mojang’s Minecraft is considered the best-selling video game ever and currently has more than 160 million active users. One of the major draws for the game is its endless opportunities for creativity, with its most dedicated players designing pixel-driven renditions of everything from actual cities to fictional lands like Middle Earth. Or, you know, you can just keep it simple and build yourself a little Minecraft house like Jack Black.
Minecraft comes to theaters on April 4th, 2025, and with such a massive fan base, we’re expecting to be a real “block” buster…In addition to Minecraft and presumably the Mario sequel, Jack Black is also playing Claptrap in an adaptation of Borderlands.
Do you play Minecraft? How do you think the video game will translate on the big screen? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below!