Jack Black seems to be in every new video game movie (even though he isn’t)

Hey, Jack Black is starring in the new Minecraft movie!

But why does this come as no surprise at all? Jack Black in a video game adaptation? Must be a day that ends in Y.

Leaving aside the fact that Black’s casting was announced back in January, for most people this was the first indication they got of A Minecraft Movie even existing came on wednesday when the teaser trailer for the movie cases. I’m talking about people like my son, who is 16 and used to play Minecraft a lot. (I may have played a fair bit with him, too.)

When he came home from school yesterday afternoon, he said, “Hey Dad, is there a Minecraft movie?” I said, “Yeah, and it stars Jack Black.” To which he said, “Again!?”

A quick one Google Search indicates that we are not the only ones suffering from the not quite correct idea that the actor in all of video game movies. Yes, it certainly seems like Black is in every video game adaptation coming to the big screen these days, and that’s partly because he’s lent his unique talents to basically three of the most recent titles in the genre: He voiced Bowser in last year’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie , Claptrap in Borderlands last month , and now he’s made a surprise appearance in the trailer for A Minecraft Movie as Steve, the live-action version of the playable character we’ve all embodied while building our awesome contraptions in the game. (Black appearing as Steve is unexpected simply because Steve isn’t a character in the game at all—that’s not really what Minecraft is about—and so the actor’s outsized personality seems at odds with what we know about the “expert crafter.”)

But if we leave those three films aside, Jack Black hasn’t starred in any other video game movie adaptations. So why does it feel like he has?

Part of this is undoubtedly because the actor has increasingly focused on family films over the past 15 years, from the Kung Fu Panda franchise (which started in 2008, but saw its fourth installment released this past spring) to the children’s horror films Goosebumps, Gulliver’s Travels and, of course, the Jumanji films.

While not based on a video game, 2017’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and 2019’s Jumanji: The Next Level were modern spins on an old favorite, the 1995 Robin Williams film. That film will undoubtedly take up a certain amount of mental space for many now-adult fans who grew up with the film, which was, after all, about a gameif not a video game. Of course, the Black-starring versions turned their version of Jumanji into a video game, so while they weren’t based on an actual video game franchise, those films were video game movies in a way.

Black’s association with Jumanji is undoubtedly part of the reason behind the Mandela Effect of “Jack Black is in every video game movie.” Additionally, the Jumanji films offer the video game-like experience of their child characters taking on avatars (Black plus Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, etc.) in a video game world, which, come to think of it, isn’t all that different from the premise of A Minecraft Movie, though in that film the characters seem to retain their real-life forms once they’re in the game… hence the fact that Steve is actually Jack Black.

He’s actually perfect for this kind of movie, a funny, relatable character that parents can enjoy while they’re forced to watch the latest kid’s cartoon (or half-cartoon, in the case of Minecraft). The little ones seem to like him too, and his harmless outrageousness and sweaty, tireless promotional efforts surrounding such titles must make the studios happy, too.

The other interesting aspect of this not-quite-yet phenomenon is that Hollywood seems to have finally figured out how to make good video game movies. That could mean Black getting a lot more roles in games, despite the failure of Borderlands. The Super Mario Bros. Movie is getting a sequel, so Black could be back as Bowser for who knows how many adventures. If A Minecraft Movie is a success, it seems safe to assume that actor Steve will return. And beyond that… the pixelated sky’s the limit.

Maybe Jack Black in the end shall appear in every new video game movie.

Top image: Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images