The hyper-popular Minecraft game franchise is coming to the big screen in 2019: The movie will be competing with the Star Wars and Avengers finales!
Warner Bros. plans for a Minecraft movie just got a little more specific: Via Variety, we now have an official release date!
Minecraft: The Movie (or whatever they’re calling it) will hit theaters on May 25, 2019, meaning that its debut is just three years away.
That’s not a long time in Hollywood years, but it is somewhat of a gamble — we don’t doubt the enduring popularity of Minecraft as a franchise, but since there’s no inherent story in the game to draw crowds, perhaps its target audience will have moved on to bigger and better things by 2019?
Especially considering that the Minecraft movie will end up competing with two massive franchise conclusions (and possibly the biggest films of all time): Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War – Part 2 and Disney’s Star Wars: Episode IX. Yikes.
Nonetheless, we’re curious to see what Warner Bros. will do with the Lego-adjacent block world and characters.
Minecraft is essentially a builder/battler game, giving you endless worlds to populate and construct to your liking. In online multiplayer mode you can engage with battles with friends or strangers, carving out a position of authority in a pixelated alternate reality.
The best version possible of this film would probably take the Lego Movie approach and try to incorporate some of the franchises Minecraft has the rights to. Like, uh… Minions? Okay, never mind.
Minecraft was originally set to be directed by Shawn Levy, from a script by Kieran and Michele Mulroney. They departed the project in 2014, however, and now it’s in the hands of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia‘s’ Rob McElhenney.
Considering the lukewarm reception to the Angry Birds movie, we’ll put this one in the ‘maybe’ column — but hey, we’re sure kids will love it!