A Minecraft Movie sequel: Records smashed on opening weekend - when will second film be released?

A Minecraft Movie’s release was timed to attract teenage fans in the school holidays and it is the top film in the UK right now - smashing records over the opening week.

Eagle-eyed viewers will have spotted not only a post-credits scene - indicating a future for the storyline - but also a hilarious snippet which plays halfway through the credits. And, to the delight of fans, director Jared Hess is already teasing a sequel, saying "it seems like there’s already talk”.

However, it won’t hit cinemas any time soon. Filming for this month’s release began in January last year. Although it wrapped in April 20024, it still took a full year to reach the big screen.

The blockbuster - which is based on the popular adventure-sandbox video game of the same name - has proved to be a major commercial hit since it landed in cinemas last Friday, and Hess, 45, has now hinted a follow-up flick might be on the horizon.

When it hit theatres last week, ’A Minecraft Movie’ proved to be a smash hit, bringing in $313 million globally in its opening weekend.

Speaking about a possible sequel with Deadline, the filmmaker said: "Oh, man. Well, it would be so much fun.

"We had so much fun making this movie, and it’s such an expansive world in the game, and there were so many things that we didn’t tap into that we wanted to.

"I would have a blast doing the sequel, and it seems like there’s already talk about it happening, so I’m super excited. It’ll be so much fun to go back into the world.

"The fans are just having such a good time. We teased it in the end credits, and the fans seem to be going wild for it."

In the end credits scene, Steve (Jack Black) meets Alex - ‘Minecraft’s other playable protagonist - and Hess has hinted any such sequel would bring in the character.

The ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ director shared: "The character we teased is Alex, the other massively critical character in ‘Minecraft’. It’s Steve and Alex, and so that’s the one that we will be bringing to the table without a doubt."

‘A Minecraft Movie’ follows four misfits - Garret ‘The Garbage Man’ Garrison (Jason Momoa), Henry (Sebastian Hansen), Natalie (Emma Myers), and Dawn (Danielle Brooks) - who are transported through a mysterious portal into the Overworld, a cubic realm thriving on imagination.

To return home, they must master this new world and embark on a quest alongside expert crafter Steve (Black), confronting various challenges and creatures along the way.

Reflecting on ‘A Minecraft Movie’, Hess suggested a large contributing factor to the film’s success was the "immense audience" the 2009 video game has, with the source material itself allowing him to create a "ridiculously fun and funny adventure movie" that has a broad appeal.

He explained: "There was an immense audience that was so passionate about the game and for whom ‘Minecraft’ was such a key part of their childhood adolescence, just something that they loved.

"The game itself is so creative, but it’s also ridiculous and really funny and absurd in so many ways.

"That was so much of the appeal to me in adapting it. It was like, how can you just do a ridiculously fun and funny adventure movie in this world - all of those goofy, dorky things we just really tried to celebrate and were super conscious of while making it?”

The filmmaker added that the cast was also a major reason why ‘A Minecraft Movie’ has resonated with so many - and pointed to Black’s "passion" for the project.

He said: "When you’re working with Jack Black and Jason Momoa and Danielle Brooks and Jennifer Coolidge and the whole cast, it’s like we just spent a ton of time coming up with what really was funny to us.

"I think one of the things that people are responding to is how dead serious the characters are taking this ridiculous world.

"Jack is playing everything with so much passion. And when we were shooting, it’d be like, ‘You know what, Jack, let’s put a little more mustard on that.’ And he just takes everything to an 11, all the time.

"That absurd seriousness about such a ridiculous world is part of the vitality of the comedy. I think that is what people are celebrating."