Multiple Hollywood insiders are reporting that Aquaman himself, Jason Momoa, is in the final stages of talks to star in the Minecraft movie - so is Momoa going to be Minecraft Steve? That’s looking unlikely right now, as it seems the film’s producers might be drawing less from the sandbox game and more from Telltale’s Minecraft: Story Mode to build the cast.
Initially reported by The Ankler, and separately confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, Momoa is now in the final negotiations to take the lead role in a live-action Minecraft movie. Jared Hess, probably best known as the director of Napoleon Dynamite, is on board to direct the film.
That original Ankler article is paywalled, but as noted by Geoff Keighley, it suggests that Mamoa is going to play Gabriel the Warrior, a character who originated in Minecraft: Story Mode. Of course, this movie has already been through a lot of iterations. At various points, it was going to be directed by Peter Sollett, it was going to star Steve Carell, and it was going to release on March 4, 2022.
Developer Mojang proudly announced the film back in 2019 with a simple plot summary: it’s “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.” Whether Email of that story remains in the final production remains to be seen, and that announcement has since been deleted from the Minecraft website.