A Minecraft Movie Already Perfectly Set Up An Epic Franchise
Warning: SPOILERS for A Minecraft Movie.There are a lot of directions the sequel for A Minecraft Movie could take, but the movie has already set up the perfect continuation of the franchise. To date, many think of Minecraft as one of the best video games of all time. As far as video game adaptations are concerned, A Minecraft Movie’s box office has already placed it among the most lucrative. Between the inclusion of countless game references and the sheer joy of Jack Black, the movie has more than earned its right to a sequel.
Additionally, there’s the matter of A Minecraft Movie’s Easter eggs. Every couple of minutes, the film calls out something that fans of Minecraft, Jack Black, or Jared Hess movies in general are sure to recognize. A Minecraft Movie has therefore accomplished the rare feat of developing a cult following while also achieving mass success, a double-feat that only so many movies get to claim at once. But when it comes to how the movie’s most minor Easter eggs play into the sequel, things start to get almost too interesting to put into words.
Steve’s Opening Monologue In A Minecraft Movie Teases Billions Of Stories To Tell
It Draws Attention To The Game’s Best Feature
From the very beginning of the film, A Minecraft Movie starts setting up its sequel potential. Even before A Minecraft Movie’s soundtrack can begin in earnest, Jack Black sings a song about creativity and building new things. However, he also mentions during the same opening monologue that the Overworld is home to billions of stories. This keeps in line with the game’s basic format, in which any number of players can create their own worlds with infinite new stories to unfold. It seems like a passing line at first, but it could be highly important to the franchise.
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It’s not long after that Steve discovers Minecraft’s The Nether, a universe that the world of the film treats like Mordor from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings novels. This is a world in which harmony and creativity are seen as the enemy. But Steve, despite initially becoming one of many slaves to The Nether, stands against the villain Malgosha. In short, the entire point of the movie is to celebrate that creativity should always be allowed. This has caused many to suspect that the film may follow its “billions of stories” narrative by following new canons in each subsequent movie.
A Minecraft Movie’s Ending Paves The Way For More Movies
The Franchise Can Continue With Or Without Steve
It should already be clear from A Minecraft Movie’s post-credits tease that the film is angling for future installments. They introduce Alex, a character that gamers recognize as the basic equivalent of Steve, and they do so in a way that makes her character feel relatively important to Steve’s plot. But there are plenty of other reasons to think A Minecraft Movie is leaving room open for a sequel. One of the most obvious is based on the sheer manner in which time works when trapped in the Overworld.
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Not long into the film, it becomes clear that time in the Overworld works much differently from time in the real world. While we operate on 24-hour days, Steve’s time in the Overworld accurately depicts Minecraft’s 20-minute day cycles. As a result, the movie creates a multiverse in which time passes much more quickly in the Overworld than it does in the real world. This never technically becomes important in the film. But there are several reasons why it both could and should become important.
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Firstly, Malgosha’s threat has already been resolved. Unless that character becomes a fan favorite, there’s no marketable reason to bring her back. But going back to the concept that Minecraft enables billions of stories, having Steve stay in the real world for more time than passes in the Overworld means he could come back to a completely different landscape. A sequel could pay homage to popular worlds created by notable fans or simply include new structures such as musical hallways. It’s a franchise based on so much creativity that it can literally do whatever it wants.
A Minecraft Movie Franchise Is Certainly Going To Happen After Record-Breaking Box Office
WB Definitely Can’t Disagree With The Profits
There are already rumors of Minecraft 2 being on the way, and that frankly makes a lot of sense. At the time of writing, the movie has made back more than three times its budget. That’s more than enough to break even, and box office numbers don’t even account for the profits made from merchandizing and later digital sales. It’s already impossible for the movie not to make a profit at this point, but that profit may increase exponentially in the weeks to come. In short, the movie is doing quite well.
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If anything stands in the way of the movie’s success, it’s moviegoers who tire of movies based on pre-existing media. But while such viewers can be extremely vocal, the reality is that movies based on pre-existing media often make more money than films based on original scripts. Those who say otherwise haven’t affected the box office enough for WB to put off a Minecraft sequel in favor of anything else. If Jack Black can earn applause for learning something as easy to google as Minecraft’s water bucket MLG, it would be inadvisable to cut off this profitable franchise now.
Future Minecraft Movies Can Move Beyond Steve
The Game Exists In An Infinite Universe Of Stories
Despite the fact that the first iteration of A Minecraft Movie has gone viral, that doesn’t mean a potential sequel couldn’t go in another direction. The next film could easily explore a world built by a different character, such as Alex. The fact that Minecraft allows for almost infinite worlds to explore means it would be a bummer to only explore one world for the movies, so finding ways to expand the canon should definitely be a main priority for the movies if they want to stand on their own.
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That said, drawing from the source material still naturally matters. Scenes like the one including Minecraft’s chicken jockey went over extremely well with fans of the games, and ignoring the potential for further such references would be leaving money on the table. A Minecraft Movie could easily build on these ideas while incorporating even more fan-favorite concepts from the long-running game. They don’t need Steve in order to pull that off.
