This film was originally going to be directed by Shawn Levy, but he left the project after disagreements with the Minecraft developers as they thought that his idea did not suit the game.
There are many references to Napoleon Dynamite, one of Jared Hess' earlier films such as the troublesome alpacas, the storing of tater tots in pants pockets, and the self-defense training dojo (the t-shirts having a similar design to the Vote for Pedro shirts).
'Steve's Lava Chicken' by Jack Black entered the UK Top 40 at Number 21 on April 18th 2025. It's not just Jack Black's biggest hit, it now also holds the record for the shortest UK hit at 34secs - beating the previous record holder 'The Ladies Bras' by Jonny Trunk and Wisbey by 2secs.
Matt Berry was first cast as Steve, but had to drop out after the SAG-AFTRA strike altered his schedule. The role went to Jack Black, who was originally only supposed to cameo as a talking pig. Berry instead provided the voice of Nitwit.
When creating the look of Malgosha, Weta FX referenced Mama Fratelli from The Goonies, Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars and the Skeksis from The Dark Crystal in their design for Malgosha. "She is so unique and having a super squared off fridge sized hunchback" said Weta FX supervisor Sheldon Stopsack, who observes that bringing that kind of look to life was a tough task. "Her appearance was almost 90 percent cloak. The cloak played a pretty pivotal role. We were fortunate enough that the production's costume department built a super-elaborate 35 kilogram heavy cloak for on-set reference. It was so heavy, it wasn't practical to use for any sort of proxy actor to actively wear on camera, but it was good reference."