Minecraft Movie Release Date Delayed Indefinitely by Warner Bros.

Production of the Minecraft movie has encountered another setback as Warner Bros. delays nearly all of their major upcoming productions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As The Hollywood Reporter notes, the Minecraft movie was recently scheduled to be released on March 4, 2022. Now, though, Warner Bros. confirms that the movie’s release has been pushed back from that date and that no updated release date for the project is available at this time.

While it’s entirely possible that WB is just trying to find the best way to squeeze Minecraft into their now-chaotic production schedule, we wouldn’t be surprised if they simply don’t know what the status of the project is and what a realistic timeframe for its release looks like.

After all, the production of the Minecraft movie has been chaotic so far. The original plan was for Shawn Levy to direct a Jason Fuchs-written treatment of the adaptation that was scheduled for release in 2019. However, Levy dropped out of the project early on and was replaced by Rob McElhenney.

What, exactly, happened next is up for debate, but McElhenney indicated that Warner Bros. may have gotten cold feet for his vision of the film despite initially seeming to be on-board with his ideas. In any case, McElhenney was soon gone and WB replaced Fuchs with Aaron and Adam Nee.

Last we heard, Peter Sollett was set to direct the adaptation with Frozen 2‘s Allison Schroeder handling writing duties. We haven’t heard any reports of new talent being brought in to helm the project and it seems like the basic plan is still for the film to follow a group of teenagers as they explore the world of Minecraft.

Again, though, it really feels like everything is up in the air at this point. In case you haven’t noticed, there are a lot of video game adaptations in production at the moment, and progress on all of them has been either slow or nonexistent. While the Uncharted adaptation has probably suffered the wildest amount of creative turnover thus far, it feels reasonable to say that some of these planned productions may eventually be dropped.

Besides, the COVID-19 pandemic has cast reasonable doubt over the future of major film productions and how they will be released. Minecraft remains one of the biggest games in the world (and the best-selling game ever) but it could find itself on the chopping block if further delays complicate the process beyond the point of the adaptation’s perceived worth.