The Trolling of the 'Minecraft Movie' Trailer Isn’t Exactly What You Think

In aboriginal September, Warner Bros. released a teaser for A Minecraft Movie, the studio’s caller movie based connected Mojang’s astir 15-year-old sandbox game. Directed by Napoleon Dynamite helmer Jared Hess, it was, frankly, precise goofy. Jack Black was Steve; Jason Momoa was sporting possibly the worst hairdo he’s ever had. Everyone involved, adjacent the animated creatures, seemed to deliberation they were successful a antithetic movie.

But that wasn’t what the trolls latched onto. Instead, they fixed connected the information that a Black woman—Orange Is the New Black’s Danielle Brooks—was successful the Overworld.

As the trailer racked up dislikes, right-wing influencers similar Elijah Schaffer and Nick Fuentes posted Brooks’ representation adjacent to disparaging comments and made references to “forced diversity” and “woke” Hollywood. It was Gamergate 2.0—a reimagining of the decade-old harassment run aimed astatine rallying against diversity, equity, and inclusion—but aimed astatine a kids’ movie, rather than a video game.

According to Wendy Via, cofounder and CEO of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, which conscionable published a report looking astatine the acold right’s racist comments astir the trailer, the effect comes from a new, and besides rather old, playbook. “Large-scale campaigns against trailers specifically are a comparatively caller phenomenon, but attempting to framework ‘wokeness’ arsenic an invisible force infiltrating the amusement manufacture is not,” Via says.

Via points retired that backmost successful outpouring of 2023, the far-right X relationship End Wokeness made akin sound astir a “Protect Trans Kids” emblem that appeared concisely successful the trailer for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. The extremity of these campaigns is to people “spaces wherever young, achromatic men are influenced,” similar sci-fi movies and video games, which entreaty to younger audiences, Via adds. “Providing racist and homophobic commentary connected fashionable franchises done ample societal media platforms similar Twitter and YouTube serves arsenic an effectual means to propagandize and enlistee young radical to hatred movements.”

Take, for example, The Acolyte. Earlier this year, the Disney+ amusement recovered itself the people of fan backlash portion prima Amandla Stenberg was subjected to racist comments online. So, too, was Kelly Marie Tran, who played Rose Tico successful the astir caller Star Wars movie trilogy. The minimizing of her relation successful the past installment, The Rise of Skywalker, possibly emboldened diverseness detractors further.

Reception of The Acolyte seemed, almost, to beryllium a solidification. Fan unrest successful the Star Wars beingness is simply a relative to, if not a nonstop descendant of, Gamergate, and since erstwhile Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon harnessed the vigor of that question and utilized it to substance the past burgeoning alleged alt-right, influencers person utilized akin tactics to person aggrieved men that their games, their shows and movies, and their state are someway being taken from them.

By the clip the Minecraft Movie trailer dropped, the publication was already set. Influencers conscionable had to prime which lines to say.