Hey, Jack Black is starring in the new Minecraft movie!
But why doesn’t this come at all as a surprise? Jack Black in a video game adaptation? Must be a day that ends in Y.
Putting aside that Black’s casting was reported back in January, for most folks the first indication they had of A Minecraft Movie even existing came on Wednesday when the teaser trailer for the film dropped. I’m talking about people like my son, who’s 16 and who used to play a ton of Minecraft when he was younger. (I may have played my fair share with him too.)
When he got home from school yesterday afternoon, he was like, “Hey Dad, there’s a Minecraft movie?” I responded, “Yeah, and Jack Black’s starring in it.” To which he said, “Again!?”
A quick Google search indicates that we’re not the only ones suffering from the not quite accurate notion that the actor is in all of the video game movies. Yes, it sure does seem like Black is in every big-screen game adaptation these days, and that’s in part due to the fact that he’s lent his unique talents to essentially three of the most recent titles in the genre: He voiced Bowser in The Super Mario Bros. Movie last year, Claptrap in Borderlands last month, and now he’s popped up in a sort of surprising way in the trailer for A Minecraft Movie as Steve, the live-action version of the playable character we’ve all embodied when building our amazing constructs in the game. (Black appearing as Steve is unexpected just because Steve isn’t really much of a character at all in the game – that’s not really what Minecraft is about – and so the actor’s outsized personality seems at odds with what we know about the “expert crafter.”)
But putting aside those three movies, Jack Black hasn’t been in any other video game movie adaptations. So why does it feel like he has been?
Part of this is no doubt is due to the fact that the actor has increasingly gravitated towards family films over the past decade and a half, from the Kung Fu Panda franchise (started in 2008 but still going with Part 4 this past spring) to the kid horror of Goosebumps to Gulliver's Travels to, of course, the Jumanji movies.
While not based on a video game, 2017’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and 2019’s Jumanji: The Next Level were modern spins on an old favorite, the Robin Williams film from 1995 that surely occupies a certain amount of mental real estate for many now-adult fans who grew up on the film which is, after all, about a game, if not a video game. Of course, the Black-starring versions turned their version of Jumanji into a video game, so while not based on a proper game franchise, those films were video game movies in a way.
Surely Black’s Jumanji association is part of the reason behind the “Jack Black is in all the game movies” Mandela Effect. Plus, the Jumanji films offer the game-like experience of their kid characters assuming avatars (Black plus Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, etc.) in a video game world which, come to think of it, isn’t that different from the premise of A Minecraft Movie, though in that film it appears that the characters keep their real-world forms once in the game… hence why Steve is actually Jack Black.
He’s actually perfect for these types of movies, a funny and recognizable figure who parents can enjoy while they have to sit through the latest kids cartoon (or half-cartoon in the case of Minecraft). The young’uns seemingly like him too, and his inoffensive outrageousness and sweaty, indefatigable promotional efforts around such titles has gotta make the studios happy as well.
The other interesting aspect of this not-quite-yet phenomenon is that nowadays Hollywood seems to have finally figured out how to make good video game movies. That could mean many more games roles for Black, Borderlands’ bombing notwithstanding. The Super Mario Bros. Movie is getting a sequel, so Black could very well be back as Bowser for who knows how many more adventures. If A Minecraft Movie takes off, it seems safe to assume that the actor’s Steve will return. And beyond that… the pixelated sky’s the limit.
Maybe eventually Jack Black actually will be in every new video game movie.
Top Image Credit: Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images
