Actor Jack Black is joining yet another video game movie with his starring role in 2025’s Minecraft movie. In a new interview, Black talked about appearing in that film and also reacted to the negative critical reception to The Super Mario Bros. Movie, in which he voiced Bowser.
In the newest issue of Total Film (via GamesRadar), Black said Mario and Minecraft are related in that they are both video games, but the Minecraft film is live-action. “Live-action is a different ball of wax,” Black said.
He added that he’s excited to work with director Jared Hess again after starring in Nacho Libre, which was also directed by Hess. “It’s been fun jamming with Jared,” Black said.
Almost nothing is known about the story for the Minecraft movie, or Black’s role in it, but the film is assembling a big cast. In addition to Black, the movie stars Jason Momoa, Jennifer Coolidge, Danielle Brooks, Matt Berry, Emma Meyers, Kate McKinnon, and Jemaine Clement. Filming is underway in New Zealand, and Lord of the Rings veteran and Oscar-winner Grant Major is working on it as its production designer.
Also in the interview, Black reflected on the review scores for The Super Mario Bros. Movie on Rotten Tomatoes. The film has a 59% fresh rating, while the audience score is 95%. Black said he saw a screening of the film a month before it debuted, and he thought it was going to be a smash hit. He ended up being right, as the film banked more than $1.3 billion worldwide, even if review scores from critics weren’t so positive.
“It came out and it got horrible reviews. I was like, ‘What movie did they see?’ Luckily, the world didn’t listen to Rotten Tomatoes, and it was one of the biggest hits of all time,” Black said.
Before Mario, Black starred in the Jumanji reboot series, which is kind of video game-related because the version of the game Jumanji in those films is a video game. Looking ahead, Black will voice Claptrap in the Borderlands movie.
