'Minecraft' Movie Casts Kate McKinnon and Jemaine Clement

The Big Picture

• Comedy stars Kate McKinnon and Jemaine Clement have joined the cast of the highly-anticipated Minecraft movie.
• The film is based on the popular video game and will be directed by Jared Hess.
• McKinnon and Clement join an already star-studded cast that includes Jason Momoa, Jack Black, and Jennifer Coolidge.

The hotly-anticipated Minecraft movie has added a pair of comedy ringers to its burgeoning cast. Kate McKinnon and Jemaine Clement will join the film in unspecified roles. Deadline reports that the duo has been added to a cast that already includes Jason Momoa, Jack Black, Danielle Brooks, Emma Myers, and Sebastian Eugene Hansen. Recent Emmy-winner Jennifer Coolidge was just announced to be joining the cast yesterday.

Based on the wildly popular worldbuilding video game of the same name, the Minecraft film has been in development since 2014. It will be directed by Napoleon Dynamite's Jared Hess; plot and character details for the film are so far being kept under wraps, but it will focus on a teenage girl and a ragtag group of adventurers who must save the Overworld from the fearsome Ender Dragon. Unlike many recent video games that have made the transition from pixels to celluloid, the game itself has no plot; players build their own elaborate worlds while avoiding hostile creatures. Don't start creeping around the multiplex yet, though; Minecraft is slated to be released on April 4, 2025.

Who Are Kate McKinnon and Jemaine Clement?

McKinnon starred on the venerable sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live for nine seasons, departing in 2022 after winning two Emmys throughout her tenure; she recently came back to serve as guest host. Outside of SNL, she has pursued several projects, including Paul Feig's 2016 Ghostbusters reboot and the Tiger King-derived series Joe vs. Carole, where she played Carole Baskin. She recently made a lasting impression as Weird Barbie in last summer's megahit Barbie, and can next be seen in Andrew Stanton's upcoming science fiction movie In the Blink of an Eye.

The New Zealand-born Clement is one half of the comedy music duo Flight of the Concords (with Bret McKenzie), starring in their eponymous HBO series for two seasons. He starred in fellow Kiwi Taika Waititi's directorial debut Eagle vs. Shark, and starred in his breakthrough hit What We Do in the Shadows. He will lend his voice to the upcoming stop-motion fantasy Wildwood and will write and produce a miniseries adaptation of Time Bandits for Apple.

Minecraft will be produced by Roy Lee, Jon Berg, Mary Parent, Cale Boyter, Momoa, Torfi Frans Olafsson, Vu Bui, and Jill Messick (posthumously). Todd Hallowell, Kayleen Walters, Brian Mendoza, and Jonathan Spaihts will executive produce.

Minecraft is slated to be released in theaters on April 4, 2025. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates, and watch Collider's Barbie interview with McKinnon below.

Minecraft

The malevolent Ender Dragon sets out on a path of destruction, prompting a young girl and her group of unlikely adventurers to set out to save the Overworld.

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