He continues. “That’s why it’s called A Minecraft Movie. This is the Jared Hess vision-version of it. Even Steve is almost like faceless, a blank slate when you play Steve or Alex or any other characters, because they embody kind of what you do as a player. So people are saying, ‘Hey, that’s just Jack Black wearing a blue shirt.’ But this is Jack Black’s Steve taken to 11.”
While the film is just one of many stories that could take place inside of Minecraft, the crew was still aware that you had to bring the easter eggs, nods, and creatures that fans love so much to the big screen. This includes the terrifying Enderman who star Jack Black was particularly excited to tease. “He’s legit the scariest creature in Minecraft, and I think we did a really good job of capturing that thing. You can’t look him in the eye,” Jack Black says. “In our movie you do see what happens when you look an Enderman in the eye…”
Those terrifying moments make A Minecraft Movie stand out, playing with the fears we have as children, and the ways that films can help us learn our boundaries. For Jason Momoa, the film that scarred him as a kid is still shaping his capacity for horror today.
“I’m terrified,” Momoa laughs. “I still f*#*ing hate clowns. I should have listened to my mother. Mama was like, ‘Do not watch It.’ Went and watched it at her friend’s house. I looked at shower drains [afterward], and I still kind of look at shower drains a little bit weird. At the gutters, my skateboard went down that shit. I was like, ‘it’s gone.’”
Luckily A Minecraft Movie isn’t that kind of scary, but Momoa is already contemplating how this film will change his life and the way that he interacts with fans just like It changed his life as a little kid. “It’s gonna be crazy too. Like obviously kids come up to you and your movies and things that you’ve done, like Kung Fu Panda,” Momoa says to Black. “But it’s the first time I’m experiencing it. I did Aquaman where people were like, ‘Oh my gosh you’re a superhero!’ But this, I don’t even know what’s gonna happen, because there are going to be three year olds. Everyone’s gonna see this movie. It’s just fun for them to watch, obviously, I’m getting my butt kicked. He’s kicking butt. So it’s great to watch.”
Black agrees, having a revelation of his own. “It’s already generational, because kids who started playing it when they were teenagers, like 14 or 15, they could very well have kids of their own now, because it’s 15 years later. They’re 29 or 30 years old. There will be Minecraft parents and their kids coming to this movie. It’s kind of cool.”
