‘A Minecraft Movie’ Trailer: Jack Black’s Steve Gets A Building Block Origin Story

Here’s the best thing I can say about A Minecraft Movie: it looks like a Minecraft movie. If you dig the bestselling sandbox video game then you’ll probably respect the visuals because clearly this movie was made with you in mind.

As seen in the new trailer, we get a deeper look at Jack Black as the game’s most iconic character, Steve. His blocky background involves wanting to be a miner (???), which leads to the discovery of the magical realm where anything one can imagine can be built out of blocks. How did he not stumble into Legoland?

Black’s seen both ends of the video game movie spectrum, having voiced Bowser in the hit Super Mario Bros. Movie and Claptrap in the embarrassing Borderlands dud. He joins Jason Momoa, Emma Myers, Danielle Brooks, Sebastian Eugene Hansen, Jennifer Coolidge, Kate McKinnon, and Jemaine Clement in the all-ages adventure set in the world of Minecraft.

The film is directed by Jared Hess, who worked with Black previously on Nacho Libre. He was hardly the first director attached to the gig, though. Shawn Levy was attached for a while, followed by uber-fan Rob McElhenney, then Peter Sollett, followed by the Nee Brothers before it was finally settled on Hess. The list of writers is just as long.

A Minecraft Movie opens in theaters and IMAX on April 4th 2025.

SYNOPSIS: Welcome to the world of Minecraft, where creativity doesn’t just help you craft, it’s essential to one’s survival! Four misfits—Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison (Momoa), Henry (Hansen), Natalie (Myers) and Dawn (Brooks)—find themselves struggling with ordinary problems when they are suddenly pulled through a mysterious portal into the Overworld: a bizarre, cubic wonderland that thrives on imagination. To get back home, they’ll have to master this world (and protect it from evil things like Piglins and Zombies, too) while embarking on a magical quest with an unexpected, expert crafter, Steve (Black). Together, their adventure will challenge all five to be bold and to reconnect with the qualities that make each of them uniquely creative…the very skills they need to thrive back in the real world.

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Travis Hopson
Travis Hopson has been reviewing movies before he even knew there was such a thing. Having grown up on a combination of bad '80s movies, pro wrestling, comic books, and hip-hop, Travis is uniquely positioned to geek out on just about everything under the sun. A vampire who walks during the day and refuses to sleep, Travis is the co-creator and lead writer for Punch Drunk Critics. He is also a contributor to Good Morning Washington, WBAL Morning News, and WETA Around Town. In the five minutes a day he's not working, Travis is also a voice actor, podcaster, and Twitch gamer. Travis is a voting member of the Critics Choice Association (CCA), Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and Late Night programmer for the Lakefront Film Festival.