There’s a strange reason behind the Minecraft Movie’s Herobrine reference

A Minecraft Movie features a quick nod to the Herobrine urban legend – but the reference wasn’t necessarily intentional, according to the movie’s producer.

Ben Drowned, MARIO, Sonic.exe; some of the scariest and most iconic creepypastas are based on video games, and Herobrine is arguably one of the most famous gaming myths ever.

As first reported on 4chan in 2010, a Minecraft player claimed to encounter a version of Steve (played by Jack Black in the movie adaptation) – however, his eyes were bright white. From here, other players started reporting sightings, often seen in the distance or blink-and-you’d-miss-it moments as someone turns a corner or ventures underground.

Given the film’s many Easter eggs, fans expected some sort of Herobrine reference – but it came to fruition in a surprising way.

A Minecraft Movie producer explains Herobrine Easter Egg

Mojang Studios

There’s a brief scene in A Minecraft Movie where an Enderman puts Steve in a trance-like state, and we see Steve’s eyes glow white as he says horrible things.

This seems like a direct reference to Herobrine, but that’s not quite the case. Torfi Frans Ólafsson, Mojang Studios’ creative director, addressed the Easter egg on social media.

“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,” he wrote on X/Twitter.

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. @AMinecraftMovie

— Torfi Frans Olafsson (@torfi_F_Olafss) April 6, 2025

After the initial sightings of Herobrine, a creepypasta was released that claimed he was the spirit of a dead player; specifically, the brother of Notch, the creator of Minecraft.

Unfortunately, as spooky as it would be if it was real, it’s all fake. Notch addressed it in 2010, tweeting: “Herobrine isn’t real in any way, no. I never had a brother (well, there’s a half-brother I never meet…), and he’s not in the game.”

However (most likely as a joke), patch notes released in May 2011 seemed to confirm the removal of Herobrine. Who knows, maybe he’s still out there.

Make sure you know where A Minecraft Movie will be streaming and how much it needs to make at the box office. You can also check out our breakdown of A Minecraft Movie’s ending and post-credits scenes, and every YouTuber who makes a cameo.