A Minecraft Movie 2 is reportedly in talks with a beloved actor to play its villain, and the choice may be an enticing clue to his character's identity. A Minecraft Movie made waves last year and brought in almost one billion dollars at the global box office, largely thanks to its virally memed moments. The flick centered around the Nether and its original villain, Malgosha, the Queen of the Piglins, who aimed to conquer the Overworld, punishing others for the creativity that she was once mocked for having through her love of dancing.
According to a post on Patreon from scooper Daniel Richtman, The IT Crowd actor Matt Berry is in talks to play a villain in A Minecraft Movie 2, which is expected to start production in April ahead of its release next year on July 23, 2027. His casting serves as both a callback to the 2025 box-office sensation and a possible sign of which Minecraft icon he would play.
Some may remember that Berry voiced Nitwit, the villager who landed in the real world and fell in love with Jennifer Collidge's Vice Principal Marlene, in A Minecraft Movie. Saying that, the actor was only heard at the end when Nitwit unlocked the English language to propose to Marlene, culminating the surreal romantic sub-plot.
Berry's cameo acted as the perfect callback to his originally intended larger role in the video game adaptation. The actor was originally meant to assume the leading role in A Minecraft Movie and play Steve in place of Jack Black, until post-2023 Hollywood strike scheduling conflicts with the final season of FX's What We Do in the Shadows forced him to leave the movie, making way for his replacement.
There's no denying that Berry has a passing resemblance to Black, namely in facial hair, and both share backgrounds in music and comedy. In fact, many have described the British Berry as looking like a villainous version of the American Black, which, combined with his story of narrowly missing out in the first Minecraft movie, makes him the perfect choice to play a live-action Herobrine.
For those unaware, Herobrine isn't a real thing in Minecraft; it's an urban legend depicted as a creepy, white-eyed version of Steve. The myth gained widespread popularity in the game's early days, with fans claiming to have sighted Herobrine, appearing to stalk players, attack them, and grief their worlds.
Despite the British actor's clear "Evil Steve" vibes, an official poster teased that the Ender Dragon would be the Minecraft sequel's villain, taking the gang on a trip to The End as a natural progression of the Nether-focused original.
Furthermore, director Jared Hess confirmed to Collider that the sequel crew has been eager to fulfill audience feedback and requests, before hinting that many have been asking them to "make sure the Ender Dragon is in it:"
"A lot of people said, 'Yeah, just make that movie, but make sure the Ender Dragon is in it. I think that's what a lot of the requests have been."
Will Matt Berry Actually Play Herobrine in A Minecraft Movie 2?
Some fans may recall Herobrine being teased in A Minecraft Movie with an Enderman-infused hallucination scene that saw each character's eyes purple and taunt the young Henry, except Steve, whose eyes glowed bright white instead.
Unfortunately, Mojang Studios' creative director Torfi Frans Olafsson later confirmed that the Herobrine hint wasn't intentional, putting it down to a last-minute VFX issue as "all of their eyes were supposed to be purple."
As Herobrine is usually depicted as simply Steve with glowing eyes, one would expect him to be played by Black if he were to appear in live-action. However, as there is no official lore behind the twisted pixelated myth, it would technically be for the team behind the theatrical adaptation to craft his backstory and make that call.
If A Minecraft Movie 2 is successful when it arrives next year and a trilogy-capping third movie moves forward, Herobrine may be the perfect final foe. Perhaps Berry's mystery role in the upcoming flick could tease a future as Herobrine, but then again, he could just as easily simply be voicing the Ender Dragon.
