Jack Black's Lava Chicken Truck Is Back — And the Minecraft Sequel Just Got Real
TL;DR: Set photos from Thames, New Zealand confirm Jack Black is reprising Steve in A Minecraft Sequel, with a redesigned look and a food truck callback to the original film. The sequel arrives July 23, 2027. Stream the first movie now on Max (HBO) in the US; JioCinema in India.
Jack Black climbed into a blocky red-and-white food truck in a small New Zealand coastal town and essentially told the internet: the Minecraft cinematic universe is still very much alive.
The Thames set photos—surfaced by The Valley Profile and a TikTok clip from user2746avgeek—show Black in character as Steve, the video-game avatar he played in 2025's A Minecraft Movie. These aren't rumours or wishful thinking. They're photographic confirmation that A Minecraft Sequel is actively filming, and from what I gather from people who track studio location shoots, the New Zealand production is expected to run for several more weeks across both Thames and Huntly.
What's striking isn't just that Black is back. It's what he's driving.
The Lava Chicken Truck: Why This Detail Matters More Than You'd Think
Steve's got a food truck now. Branded "Steve's Lava Chicken," the vehicle is a direct callback to one of the first film's most unexpectedly viral moments — that scene where Steve demonstrates his culinary revelation by combining hot lava and chicken, complete with a song that racked up over 80 million views across TikTok reposts before the movie even crossed $500 million at the global box office. The song charted. The memes multiplied. Warner Bros. noticed.
The truck itself is unmissable: red and white stripes, a food-service window, and a blocky chicken mounted on the roof like it escaped from the Overworld. Practical. Tactile. Built, not rendered.
That matters because the first Minecraft Movie worked precisely because nobody played it for laughs. Director Jared Hess — the filmmaker behind Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre — brought a deadpan sensibility to the material. Characters took ridiculous things seriously. Steve sang about lava chicken like it was genuine culinary revelation. The sequel's commitment to practical, tangible design suggests the production team is maintaining that same philosophy.
And there's something else: Steve's wearing different clothes in these photos. Gone is his signature bright blue blocky shirt. He's dressed in something more grounded, more human. The fish-out-of-water dynamic that made the first film click is still the driving force. Steve trying to exist in regular human life while being fundamentally, irreversibly a creature of the Overworld. That's the tension that works.
What We Know Right Now (And What's Still TBD)
Confirmed:
- Release date: July 23, 2027
- Filming locations: Huntly and Thames, New Zealand (active)
- Jack Black's role: Steve (reprising)
- Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
- First film streaming (US): Max (HBO)
- First film streaming (India): JioCinema
Still unconfirmed:
- Whether Jared Hess directs again
- Which cast members from the original return
- The official title (we're still calling it "A Minecraft Sequel")
- When the first trailer drops (likely Q4 2026 or early 2027 based on typical Warner Bros. timelines)
The word on the lot is that Hess has been involved in development conversations, but I hear his deal isn't closed — though that part is still rumour. Warner Bros. hasn't denied or confirmed, which in my experience usually means the negotiation is live.
Check Movie OTT's cast and streaming tracker for updated availability as the release window approaches, especially if you're catching up on the first film in the next few months.
Why Nobody Expected the First Film to Make $960 Million
Here's the honest thing: A Minecraft Movie shouldn't have worked.
The video game — developed by Mojang, acquired by Microsoft for $2.5 billion in 2014 — had resisted film adaptation for years. There's no story in Minecraft. There's just a world. You build. That's it. Translating that open-ended freedom into a narrative feature seemed like a trap nobody could escape.
And yet it grossed $960 million worldwide, making it the second-highest-grossing video game adaptation ever, right behind The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($1.36 billion). Jack Black, who also voiced Bowser in Mario, has become Hollywood's closest thing to a video-game adaptation talisman. Two massive tentpoles. Two very different source materials. Both work.
Most coverage frames the sequel as a simple cash-grab greenlight off those numbers, but the more interesting question is whether Warner Bros. can hold that July 2027 corridor against what's shaping up to be a brutal summer — Disney has a live-action tentpole slotted for the same month, and Universal's Shrek 6 is circling a nearby window. The first film benefited from a relatively soft April release frame. This time, they're walking into the teeth of blockbuster season on purpose. That's confidence, or miscalculation. We'll see which.
The original cast included:
- Jack Black as Steve
- Jason Momoa as Garrett "The Garbage Man" Garrison
- Emma Myers as Natalie
- Danielle Brooks as Dawn
- Sebastian Eugene Hansen as Henry
Who returns for the sequel beyond Black remains officially unannounced — though honestly, that's standard studio silence at this production stage.
What Jack Black Actually Said to Fans on Set
A traffic control staff member working the Thames shoot told local press, "It's not every day something like this happens in a small town like Thames." Genuine understatement. A Warner Bros. production of this scale — in a community of roughly 7,000 people — is a significant economic and cultural event.
Black himself, responding to fans shouting from behind barriers while he sat in the Lava Chicken truck, called back: "I don't know, maybe tomorrow... They got me working really long hours."
I keep coming back to that moment because it tells you something real about why this franchise works. Black doesn't treat it as beneath him. He's all in. That genuine enthusiasm was visible in every Steve scene in the first film (particularly the campfire bit where he explains Overworld physics with zero irony, like a man recounting his actual childhood), and it sounds like nothing's changed on set. The self-deprecation, the accessibility — it's not performance. It's just how he moves through these productions.
Where to Watch the First Film Right Now (By Region)
If you haven't seen A Minecraft Movie yet, now's the time. It's genuinely funnier than it has any right to be, and the Lava Chicken sequence alone justifies the runtime.
United States: Max (HBO) — included with standard subscription
India: JioCinema — check current regional availability. The film received a Hindi dubbed release for theatrical, and the sequel will almost certainly follow the same pattern given the first film's box office performance in South Asian markets.
UK and Spain: Max/HBO regional equivalents
For current availability across all platforms in your region, Movie OTT tracks where-to-watch listings and updates them as licensing shifts. Worth checking directly closer to the sequel's release window if your region's options change.
The Production Timeline Ahead
We're 18 months out from release. Here's what to expect:
- First official trailer — likely Q4 2026 or early Q1 2027
- Full cast announcement — after New Zealand filming wraps
- Official title reveal — should come with the first promotional push
- Industry speculation — whether the sequel can break the $1 billion barrier the first film narrowly missed
The Lava Chicken truck showing up in Thames signals something specific: the sequel is leaning into the fan-favourite material from the first film. It's building on what worked rather than reinventing. Smart franchise management, if that's the strategy they're following.
Where Things Stand Today
A Minecraft Sequel is filming in New Zealand. Jack Black is confirmed on set. The release date is locked at July 23, 2027. The first film streams on Max in the US and JioCinema in India. No trailer yet. Full cast announcement still pending.
If you haven't watched the original — watch it. Even if you're not a Minecraft player. The film works because Jared Hess understood something crucial: treat the absurd with complete seriousness. That's the entire secret. The sequel appears to be doubling down on that approach, which is exactly what should happen.
For updated streaming availability, cast confirmations, and release window details as 2027 approaches, keep tabs on Movie OTT.
Sources
- The Valley Profile — Jack Black Spotted Filming in Thames, New Zealand
- Box Office Mojo — A Minecraft Movie Final Worldwide Gross
- Bloomberg — Microsoft Acquires Mojang for $2.5 Billion (2014)
