What Could the Minecraft Movie Be About?

Once Warner Bros. dropped the teaser trailer for A Minecraft Movie on September 4, fans were livid. After 10 years of suspense, effort, and development, viewers were met with extreme disappointment to see that this new film would take place in a heavily CGI world. The sheep and llama have received the most backlash, given how unsightly and nightmarish their designs appeared in the teaser. That, along with the choice to make the characters live action, added another layer of isappointment, as they looked misplaced and disproportionate in a world that is meant to look blocky. 

Many are hoping that the film will receive the same treatment as the Sonic film, which, when first announced, received similar backlash due to Sonic’s ugly design. However, according to Indiewire, it took around $5 million to redesign Sonic in a film that was mostly live action. For a film with the amount of CGI creatures it has (let alone those that were not revealed), a redesign would be highly unlikely, as it would cost a tremendous amount of time and money. So what could save this horror show from becoming possibly one of the worst video game film adaptations? Well, as most would agree, looks aren’t everything in a film. Sometimes, a good story is just what it needs to be a box office hit. But what exactly could this story be? (Note: this article is a speculative analysis)

Herobrine’s Origins

While not a story-based game, perhaps one of the biggest mysteries surrounding Minecraft is the existence of Herobrine. If that name sounds unfamiliar, this is an entity that dates all the way back to 2010. His first appearance debuted from an anonymous post on 4Chan, which described the mob portraying strange but eerie behavior.

“Looking back at me was another character with the default skin, but his eyes were empty. I saw no name pop-up, and I double-checked to make sure I wasn’t in multiplayer mode. He didn’t stay long, he looked at me and quickly ran into the fog. I pursued out of curiosity, but he was gone,” the anonymous post read. The post continued to describe the mystery man, further explaining his player-like behavior, “As I expanded the world, I saw things that seemed out of place for a random map generator to make; 2×2 tunnels in the rocks, small perfect pyramids made of sand in the ocean, and groves of trees with all their leaves cut off.”

Since then, the mystery mob’s presence has only continued to grow, featuring in YouTube videos and social media posts about “sightings,” showing up as a mob in mods and online servers, and even having his name appear in several update patch notes under the line, “Removed Herobrine.” Yet, despite his growing popularity, not much has been revealed about who this mob is and why he looks so similar to Steve. The only information regarding his origins is that he is supposedly based on the brother of Markus Persson (or “Notch”, the original creator of Minecraft). However, even that claim has been denied by Persson in several of his tweets, which only leaves this mystery more ambiguous. Because of these reasons, this would be the perfect opportunity for the Minecraft film to dive into Herobrine’s origins. Who is Herobrine? Is he really Notch’s brother? Why is he so hostile? Why does he build random structures with seemingly no purpose? Perhaps these questions can finally be answered and explain how Herobrine came into existence. 

A ‘Jumanji’-like Film? 

For those who are unfamiliar with Jumanji, the film series is mainly known for its stories concerning normal everyday people who get sucked into a board game or video game and must find a way to survive and escape. Based on the teaser alone, it looks as if the story is hinting at a similar approach, as the main characters seem to be unfamiliar or surprised when they enter the Minecraft world. But how would this work for a sandbox game that has no specific way to “start” and leaves it up to the player to decide?

At the start of the teaser, there are some rather obvious signs that the main characters are from the real world and enter the game through a portal. But why would this happen, and what events could possibly lead to the characters getting into this situation? It’s highly unlikely that these people decided to start a Minecraft game together as friends, given the vast age gap between each of them. So, the only possible explanation could be that they are either a family or just random people from across the world who heard about the game and decided to try it. And what happens when they all boot up their first world? A portal appears! But it’s not just any Nether portal, of course. It’s a portal that transports them between the real world and the Minecraft world.