The Jason Momoa-led live-action Minecraft movie finally has a release date. Warner Bros. has confirmed that the troubled adaptation of the block-building sandbox video game will hit theatres on April 4, 2025. Currently, there are no plot or character details for what Momoa could play, but it lists Jared Hess as the director, best known for Napoleon Dynamite. Buzz around a Minecraft movie began in 2014 when Shawn Levy (Free Guy) quit working on the film upon hitting a dead end for a solid story. As it turns out, his and the writing team’s ideas didn’t align with the game developers’ vision. Multiple directors have joined and dropped out from the project since then, with WB locking in on Momoa to lead last year. WB’s rights to Minecraft were set to expire in January 2023.
To be fair, it’s tough to envision a story for Minecraft, which essentially is a free-willed type of game where creativity and item crafting is the priority. However, one could create a wholly original story, as seen with Telltale’s Minecraft: Story Mode, simply using its universe as a device to capture a young warrior’s perilous new adventure, after having slain the Ender Dragon.
That said, video game adaptations — save for select examples such as The Last of Us, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, and Arcane — have always received poor on-screen translations, be it for odd narrative choices or character motivations that stray too far from the source. Elsewhere, Mojang Studios is preparing to launch its upcoming Minecraft spinoff title Minecraft Legends on April 18 — a strategy game that has you form alliances and wage war against the Piglin mob.
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Warner Bros. also tweaked release dates for some other upcoming projects. First, the Momoa-starring DC live-action film Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has been pushed forward by five days, now releasing on December 20 in theatres worldwide. In doing so, it’s swapping places with the Colman Domingo-led (Euphoria) The Color Purple, a likely awards contender, that’ll now drop on Christmas Day. Aquaman 2 is expected to offer more world-building in the submerged kingdom of Atlantis, with Willem Dafoe, Nicole Kidman, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Amber Heard reprising their roles. James Wan will return to direct the sequel, which might also feature a small appearance from Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne.
Meanwhile, The Wizard of Oz animated film Toto has been removed from Warner Bros.’ calendar, as the Robert De Niro-led (The Irishman) The Wise Guys steals its spot, now slated to release on February 2024. As per Deadline, an untitled DC Comics movie was taking up a slot on September 22, though it has now been scrubbed from the schedule.
The Jason Momoa-led Minecraft movie is now slated to release on April 4, 2025.