A Minecraft Sequel: Kirsten Dunst Confirmed as Alex With End Dimension Hints for 2027 Release

Cameras are rolling in Auckland. And the first piece of evidence dropped straight onto Instagram, courtesy of Kirsten Dunst herself.

She posted two Minecraft-green directors' chairs side by side. One stencilled "Steve" for Jack Black. The other? Stencilled "Alex" with her own name beneath. Her caption read, "It has begun…..".

So yes, the rumours from March are now properly nailed down. Dunst is Alex in A Minecraft Sequel, the on-the-nose-titled follow-up to last year's blocky billion-dollar hit.

A quick refresher on Alex

For anyone who blinked through the first film's post-credits scene, Alex is the other default avatar in Minecraft alongside Steve. Red hair, green top, recognisable instantly to anyone who has spent five minutes near the game. In the 2025 film, she popped up only at the tail end, opening her front door when Steve (Jack Black) had returned to the real world. Kate McKinnon voiced her uncredited at the time, with Alice May Connolly portraying her on-screen for the brief shot.

Dunst's casting signals a proper, fleshed-out role this round.

She pretty much manifested the gig too. Back in August 2025, Dunst told Town & Country she'd love to be in a Minecraft sequel because her children adored the first film, and, well, because she'd like to "make a pile of cash". Honest. Refreshingly so. The sort of quote a press team would normally bury. Deadline broke the casting story in March 2026, and the set photo has now made everything official.

The End Dimension theory

Here is where fans started doing fan things. The official key visual leans on two pickaxes with a deliberate purple hue, and Minecraft purists know what purple signifies. The End. The final dimension. Home turf of the Ender Dragon.

If the sequel does head there, you are looking at a proper third-act showpiece, the closest thing Minecraft has to a built-in boss fight. No one from production has confirmed a thing, mind. Plot details remain firmly under wraps. Director Jared Hess and writer Chris Galletta have kept the story locked tight, and the only official summary out there comes from IMDB, where Steve and Alex are said to head deeper into the Overworld and bump into fresh challenges. Suitably vague.

But those purple pickaxes? Hard to ignore. Especially when the original October 2025 teaser, posted by Mojang itself, used two plain iron pickaxes on a table. Switching to purple feels intentional.

Who is back, and who is new

Jack Black returns as Steve. Jason Momoa is back as Garrett "The Garbage Man" Garrison. Danielle Brooks reprises Dawn, Matt Berry plays Nitwit again, and Jennifer Coolidge slots back in as Vice Principal Marlene. Add Dunst to the lineup as Alex and you have a fairly stacked roster.

The first film followed four real-world misfits (Garrett, Henry, Natalie, and Dawn) yanked through a portal into the Overworld, where they had to figure out the rules of a blocky reality while fighting off Piglins and Zombies. A bit goofy. Chaotic. Oddly heartfelt in places. Younger audiences kept showing up. Critics, less so.

Hess returns to direct, with Galletta on script duty again. Filming is underway in Auckland, and Momoa, on Fallon back in January, said the new script had him "laughing out loud", something he reckoned he hadn't done with a script in a long while. Whether you trust Momoa's review of his own script or not, the energy sounds positive.

From mixed reviews to mega gross

A Minecraft Movie pulled in roughly $961 million worldwide on a reported $150 million budget. Critics weren't sold (Rotten Tomatoes settled around 47% positive), but the audience scores told a different story. Kids gave the film an average five stars out of five on CinemaScore polling. Parents, four and a half. The chicken jockey scene went viral enough mid-2025 to push Mojang into adding the character into Minecraft proper.

So Warner Bros faces a tough ask. Repeat a billion-dollar showing without making the sequel feel like a meme cash-in.

Dunst's slate beyond Minecraft is busy too. She stars alongside Keanu Reeves in Ruben Östlund's The Entertainment System Is Down, and December 2027 brings her opposite Sydney Sweeney in The Housemaid's Revenge.

A Minecraft Sequel arrives in cinemas on 23 July 2027.