Way back in 2016, Microsoft and Warner Bros. entered an agreement to make a Minecraft movie. This would be an animated feature film based on the world’s most popular game. A release was slated for this year, but the project slipped into development hell. Now, the two companies have recommitted and placed a March 4, 2022 date for the release.
“We’re beyond excited to reveal the premiere date for the upcoming Minecraft movie,” a Minecraft blog post reads. “That date is March 4, 2022. Does it sound distant? We beg to differ! It’s only 1053 days. Or about 34 months, or 150 weeks, or a million and a half minutes. Not that we’re counting, of course.”
The reason the Minecraft is not coming out until three years from now seems to be because the project is being started again. Last year, the original project’s director left the movie. Director and co-writer Rob McElhenney was the creative force, so when he left the film was placed in flux.
However, it seems McElhenney’s script or remnants of it remain as Microsoft already knows the plot of the 2022 feature:
“We’ll tell you the story of a teenage girl and her unlikely group of adventurers. After the malevolent Ender Dragon sets out on a path of destruction, they must save their beautiful, blocky Overworld.”
New Date
Peter Sollet has been drafted in to helm the project, but one thing of interest is why a 2022 release date? It doesn’t take three years to make a movie, so why is Microsoft dragging its feet? While it does not seem Minecraft’s popularity is waning, there is a sense the time to capitalize through expanded media has already passed.
By 2022, Minecraft will still be selling in huge numbers, but many kids who played and loved the game over the last decade will be grown up.
