Summary
- Warner Bros. reportedly cast someone else as Steve in A Minecraft Movie before landing on Jack Black.
- Matt Berry was apparently the first choice, but writer strikes in 2023 led to scheduling conflicts.
- With Berry unable to play Steve, Black was promoted from talking pig to leading man.
Even now that A Minecraft Movie is out in the wild and making a lot of money for Warner Bros, some still aren’t convinced Jack Black was the right choice to play Steve. It was already known the video game movie go-to wasn’t the first pick to play the lead, and now we might know who was.
According to Puck, Matt Berry was supposed to play Steve. If you’re struggling to place who exactly that is, Berry plays Laszlo Cravensworth in What We Do In The Shadows. If you’re still struggling to picture who Matt Berry is, he’s the guy you’ve seen say New York City in an over-the-top, very British voice. You just heard it in your head as you read that, didn’t you?
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It was known Berry had been cast in A Minecraft Movie long before it ever hit cinemas. However, who exactly Berry was supposed to play in the film was never revealed. That’s until today’s Puck newsletter reported Berry was brought in to play Steve, the movie’s lead role. According to the newsletter, the writers strikes in 2023 threw a spanner in the works, and the scheduling conflicts that arose afterwards meant Berry could no longer play Steve.
Matt Berry As Minecraft’s Steve Would Have Made This A Very Different Movie
I’m Not Going To Be Able To Shake This Reveal For Quite A While
If you have big plans to go and see A Minecraft Movie and you don’t want it spoiled, stop reading here. Even though Berry didn’t play Steve, he does still have a role in the film. However, if you left the second credits rolled, you’ll have missed it. Berry voices Nitwit, the Villager Jennifer Coolidge becomes romantically involved with after hitting him with her car. However, Nitiwit doesn’t learn to speak English, and in Berry’s voice no less, until the movie is almost over.
We already knew that Black wasn’t WB’s first pick to play Steve. The film’s creators revealed ahead of A Minecraft Movie hitting theaters that Black had been cast as a talking pig. However, after deciding they needed “an expert and a host” leading the movie, Black was promoted from smart pig to leading man.
Now that I know Berry could have been Steve, I will forever be haunted by what could have been. “Flint and Steel”, “Chicken Jockey”, even “First we mine, then we craft”. Read all of those, and basically anything else Black said as Steve in A Minecraft Movie, and tell me hearing Berry say them instead wouldn’t have added at least a star to whatever you decided to give the film on Letterboxd.
Minecraft
- Released
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November 18, 2011
- ESRB
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E10+ For Everyone 10+ Due To Fantasy Violence
- Engine
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LWJGL, PROPRIETARY ENGINE