Deadline is reporting that Academy Award-nominee Kirsten Dunst has joined the cast of A Minecraft Movie sequel as Alex, one of the primary avatars available to players of the Minecraft video games from Mojang Studios on which the films are based.
She joins a star cast returning Jack Black ("Steve"), Jason Momoa ("Garrett Garrison"), Danielle Brooks ("Dawn"), Matt Berry ("Nitwit") and Jennifer Coolidge ("Marlene").
Jared Hess is returning to direct the sequel, with a script he co-wrote with Chris Galletta.
What makes her casting extra fun is it comes on the heels of her 2025 comments where she expressed she really wanted to be part of the sequel because her kids loved the first one and because she’d like to make a pile of cash. “Maybe I can just make a movie where I don’t lose money?,” she said at the time to Town & Country Magazine. Her comments went viral and it seems as though the actress may have manifested herself a role.
A Minecraft Movie was a global phenomenon in 2025, grossing $961.2 million worldwide on an estimated $150 million production budget, making it the fifth-highest grossing of the year and a major win for Warner Bros, who desperately needed one at the time of its release.
Many aspects of the film sparked huge reactions from viewers, none bigger than Black's character Steve exclaiming "chicken jockey" at a critical point in the film, which resulted in viewers spontaneously erupting into loud cheers, jumping in excitement, dancing, or throwing popcorn. The trend went viral across the globe and forced theaters to do their best to curb the enthusiasm for more civil attendees.
Jack Black's song for the film, 'Steve's Lava Chicken,' was also incredibly popular throughout the year, becoming the shortest song ever to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart.
Dunst is, of course, best known to movie fans for her role as Mary Jane Watson in Sam Raimi's blockbuster Spider-Man trilogy, where she starred in all three films opposite Tobey Maguire. Her most prominent film credits also include Roofman, Civil War, The Power of the Dog, The Beguiled, Hidden Figures, Melancholia, Marie Antoinette, Elizabethtown, Wimbledon, and Bring It On.
Before jumping into the world of Minecraft, her next film will be Ruben Östlund’s The Entertainment System Is Down, which co-stars Keanu Reeves.
It was also previously rumored that Dunst may have been considered to return as Mary Jane in Spider-Man: No Way Home, but, of course, nothing happened. However, with her co-star Maguire expected to play in part in Avengers: Doomsday and/or Avengers: Secret Wars, there's always a possibility we could see her reprise her role for a reunion nearly two decades in the making in one or the other.
The untitled A Minecraft Movie sequel is set to open in theaters on July 23, 2027!