A Minecraft Movie

producer Torfi Frans Olafsson reveals the secret truth behind one accidental movie Easter egg. Based on the video game developed by Mojang Studios, for which Olafsson serves as Senior Creative Director of Entertainment, the Warner Bros. film hit theaters last week, quickly becoming a box office sensation. Jack Black leads the A Minecraft Movie cast as Steve, the leader of a group of misfits who embark on a quest to save the Overworld from a dangerous threat in the Nether. The movie is chock-full of video game Easter eggs for fans, including one that may not have been intentional.

In a new post on X, formerly Twitter, Olafsson reveals that the Herobrine Easter egg in A Minecraft Movie, which comes during Henry’s (Sebastian Hansen) hallucination sequence, was actually not intentional. According to the producer, Steve’s white eyes were supposed to be purple, just like everybody else’s in the scene in question. The VFX studio doing the sH๏τ, however, ran out of time to fix it. Check out Olafsson’s explanation below:

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“It’s super strange that all of their eyes were supposed to be purple but when it was rendered one of the characters eyes kept coming out white in the final rendered frames so we wound up keeping it like that, because the VFX studio ran out of time.”

What This Means For A Minecraft Movie

The Herobrine Easter Egg Explained

A Minecraft Movie has plenty of Easter eggs for those who are familiar with the video game source material. These range from the obvious, like the chicken jockey scene, to more subtle inclusions, like the “Pigstep” song. The inclusion of Herobrine is another more subtle Easter egg, but it’s one with a long history in the Minecraft video games. Interestingly, Herobrine isn’t actually a real part of the game at all, but rather an urban legend among players that has been embraced by the developer.

Herobrine is described as looking just like Steve, the player character, but he has glowing white eyes with no pupils. Though Herobrine isn’t a real character in the games, players have described seeing the mysterious figure in the distance or being followed by him. Mojang has leaned into the urban legend, and occasionally mentions Herobrine in the game’s patch notes. In A Minecraft Movie, the Herobrine nod occurs after Henry encounters an Enderman, another enemy from the game, causing him to imagine his friends and family reinforcing his insecurities.

Though only appearing briefly, the inclusion of Herobrine and the movie’s many other Easter eggs and references have helped it succeed in a major way. A Minecraft Movie reviews may be very mixed from critics, but the film has been a major win with audiences. On Rotten Tomatoes, for example, the movie has a 46% critics’ score but an 88% Popcornmeter score. This positive audience response is reflected in A Minecraft Movie‘s box office performance, with the adaptation having already grossed $343 million worldwide and showing no signs of slowing down.

Our Take On A Minecraft Movie’s Herobrine Easter Egg

Was Herobrine’s Inclusion Really An Accident?

A Minecraft Movie obviously relies very heavily on VFX in order to bring its story to life, and it’s interesting that heavy VFX workloads and not enough time actually contributed to an Easter egg. It’s also possible, of course, that Olafsson is embellishing his Herobrine admission, leaning into the lore and mythology of the character to add a layer of mystery to the movie. Either way, A Minecraft Movie and its many Easter eggs are clearly going over well with fans, and Herobrine was a fun inclusion.

Source: Torfi Frans Olafsson