The Live-Action Minecraft Movies You’ll Never See

For many who purchase a ticket to see A Minecraft Movie in theaters, the latest Jared Hess directorial effort will seem like the most inevitable thing in the world. Of course there’s a live-action Minecraft adaptation, especially hot off the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Five Nights at Freddy’s. This brand was always ripe for a motion picture. Those two 2023 video game movie hits, though, only incentivized Hollywood even further into exploiting all possible video games.

However, A Minecraft Movie didn’t just appear from out of the ether in the last 18 months. It’s been a long, winding road for this family feature full of creative dead ends. Warner Bros. has been trying to get a Minecraft adaptation off the ground for a little over a decade. Along the way, various iterations of this live-action project (each reflecting different styles of Hollywood filmmaking) were considered. They were never meant to grace movie theaters, but that doesn’t mean their sagas aren’t worth telling.

The Very First Abandoned Minecraft Movie

Just five years after the game’s launch in 2009, Minecraft’s film rights were first locked up by Warner Bros. Pictures. Famous producer Roy Lee, who’d been one of the producers on WB’s big 2014 hit The LEGO Movie, was producing this Minecraft adaptation. This was a clear sign of how the studio wanted to make another box office hit aimed at kids based on familiar IP rooted in creativity. Shawn Levy (who would go on to direct the video game movie Free Guy) initially signed on to direct. Given his pedigree with family movies thanks to helming Night at the Museum, Levy’s participation signaled extreme confidence in this project.

However, less than a year later, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia cast member Rob McElhenney signed on to helm Minecraft. This choice only furthered comparisons to The LEGO Movie. After all, that toy movie was helmed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who’d previously directed the R-rated comedy 21 Jump Street. McElhenney, known for the farcical vulgarity of It’s Always Sunny, was this movie’s equivalent to Lord and Miller. All things looked good for the project, as Steve Carell signed on to play the lead character and a high-profile May 24, 2019 release date was set.

Eventually, though, a studio executive shake-up at Warner Bros. led to this version of the project perishing. It was a devastating blow to McElhenney, who felt really passionately about this film and how the Minecraft property spoke to those who felt powerless. With his iteration gone, Warner Bros. charged forward. By the late 2010s, though, the studio wasn’t looking to make another LEGO Movie clone. Another pop culture mold had emerged that the studio yearned to mimic.

[RELATED – Jack Black Sings About Zombies and Crafting on New Minecraft Movie Song]

Taking Another Swing at Minecraft

Between Stranger Things in 2016 and the first IT movie in 2017, Hollywood was reminded of the power of genre movie stories focused on a group of kids going on a fantastical adventure. Filmmaker Peter Sollett was hired in early 2019 to helm a version of a Minecraft feature that evoked these titles. This iteration of the production would’ve focused on a group of kids having to save the Minecraft world from evil forces. If The LEGO Movie had guided the creative ambitions of the very first swing at a Minecraft motion picture, then Stranger Things and classic Amblin movies would have been the north stars for this title.

A March 4, 2022 release date was announced for this film, which seemed to be getting back on track once more. Of course, this was all before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the entertainment industry starting in March 2020. Warner Bros. was a big studio but even it was not impervious to this health crisis. With the studio delaying so many of its postponed motion pictures, Minecraft was removed from the schedule. The Batman would eventually take that March 4, 2022 release date instead.

With that, a live-action Minecraft movie seemed to be well and truly dead at Warner Bros. thanks to two aborted attempts that went nowhere as well as a global pandemic. Of course, that bleak outlook didn’t last long considering A Minecraft Movie’s imminent theatrical debut. The version that’s finally arriving into theaters has more than a few shades of recent family movie hits like Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, particularly when it comes to Jack Black’s casting. Minecraft fans have had divisive responses (to put it gently) to the Minecraft Movie’s marketing. However, given how many iterations and filmmakers have tried to get this production realized, A Minecraft Movie’s very existence is a bit of a miracle.

A Minecraft Movie hits theaters on April 4th.