Buckle up, viewers (and particularly the parents of said viewers) – If one felt that the ‘ironically detached’ humor of its first trailer completely missed the mark, they’ll likely be disappointed to learn that according to the film’s producer Torfi Frans Olafsson, the writing for Steve’s character in the live-action Minecraft movie will be directly inspired by “the humor” of the game’s online community.
Olafsson, who is serves as producer via his role as Minecraft Senior Director of Original Content for Microsoft, spoke to the film’s writing during a recent interview given to IGN’s Alex Stedman following the release of Minecraft‘s latest trailer.
Reflecting on the production team’s approach to bringing the popular block-building game, as originally developed by Markus ‘Notch’ Persson, to the silver screen, Olafsson began by tackling the film’s most ‘controversial’ move: portraying the entirety of its events in live-action.
“I mean, that was one of the things [fans were saying in response to the trailer],” recalled the producer. “‘Why is it live action? Why isn’t it animated?’ I think a lot of people were expecting that, and just the fact that there was live action and directly real-life characters and physical sets, didn’t feel right with them, because in their imagination, they’ve been playing it for a very long time. And they’ve kind of projected and seen a bunch of content obviously that’s been made both by us, the community, we’ve made a story mode.”
“We made animated content before, and there’s a lot of it out there,” he added. “But that was also one of the reasons why the filmmakers wanted to go with live action rather than animate it, rather than do something that’s been done before.”
To this end, Olafsson then explained that the film would be “very firmly in what we all refer to as “‘vanilla Minecraft‘, like the unmodified Minecraft.”
“One of the characters of the movie, the young character, Henry, he enters the world, then is kind of a creator and maker in the real world,” he said. “And his character then represents the maker or the modder or the builder coming into this world. And as a result, we’re going to see some really classic stuff, stuff that we want to see, some Beast Creepers, Endermen and that kind of stuff. And then we’re going to see some new stuff that Henry made.”
“I know people may go like, ‘Wait, that’s not in the game,'” he further affirmed. “But anybody who’s played Minecraft for a while has usually installed some sort of resource pack or mod, or changed it in some way for themselves. And that’s what this character is doing.”
From there, the producer turned from the film’s world building to its character writing, telling Stedman that one notable challenge the team faced was just how to tackle the character of Steve, as played by Borderlands actor Jack Black, who rather than having any actual personality to speak of, has always existed as the blank, default player avatar (in fact, he began life as nothing more than the default skin for new Minecraft players).
“He’s like an empty page you write your story on,” detailed Olafsson of the film’s version of the hero. “But that was also an opportunity. So casting Jack Black as Steve, maybe you hadn’t imagined Jack Black as Steve, but this is the Steve which is Jack Black, if you know what I mean. Because I’m Steve, and you’re Steve, and Jared’s Steve, and everybody has been Steve, and this one is the Jack Black Steve.”
Putting a stamp on his insight, the producer ultimately affirmed, “For him, we felt that he should have the joy and the curiosity and the fun and the humor that we have seen in the Minecraft community over the years, like through YouTube videos and all of their creations.”
Admittedly, this article’s author is too old to have ridden the original Minecraft popularity wave or to be considered the live-action film’s key demographic.
But regardless, the idea of taking very specific community humor, running it through the ‘corporate washing machine’, and then attempting to mash it into a related project rarely, if ever benefits a production.
Rather, more often than not, such attempts drag down a project, often bringing audience’s immersion to a screeching halt due to being poorly executed.
For examples, look no further than such outings as X-Men: The Last Stand with its “I’m the Juggernaut, b—h!” reference, the forced streamer cameos in Free Guy, and the various YouTuber cameos in TellTale’s Minecraft: Story Mode.
At present, Warner Bros.’ live-action Minecraft film is currently on track to mine its way into theaters on April 4th, 2025.
NEXT: Minecraft Creator Markus “Notch” Persson Excluded from 10 Year Anniversary Plans by Microsoft