Theme park lovers who yearn for the mines will have their wish granted in 2027 with the debut of Minecraft World.
A $70 million project opening within Chessington World Adventures in the UK from Microsoft-owned “Minecraft” maker Mojang Studios and theme park giant Merlin Entertainments (the owner of the Legoland theme parks), the attraction will mark the first-ever theme park based on the popular building video game.
Per the two companies’ description for Minecraft World at Chessington, which is accessible from London by a 35-minute direct train ride, “Inspired by the game’s most iconic biomes, mobs, and items, Minecraft World will bring the best-selling game of all time into the physical world for the very first time at a major theme park. The land will feature new Minecraft-themed attractions, including a thrilling world first coaster, interactive adventures, epic block built playscapes, and themed retail and dining.”
Ahead of announcing the Minecraft World news during the Minecraft LIVE presentation Saturday, Microsoft Gaming’s head of Mojang Studios and franchise development Kayleen Walters and Merlin Entertainments’ senior vice president of global brand marketing Angela Jobson broke down their new partnership in an interview with Variety.
First off, the execs clarified that Minecraft World isn’t going to be a theme-park adaptation of the blockbusters hit “A Minecraft Movie” — or its upcoming 2027 sequel — brought into real life. It’s going to be based on how you play the game “Minecraft.”
“When a player joins ‘Minecraft’ and plays, it’s their own completely new experience,” Walters said. “They have the agency, they choose how to play. So every time you hit play, it’s a different experience for you, and that’s how we think about broadening beyond the game, too. We want the players to have the agency; we want our fans and our community to have the agency and the experience. So we’ve been thinking about immersive experiences in its own space, not in the movie IP space. This is really its own unique Minecraft experience.”
Walters continued: “So they haven’t taken the sets from the movie or that sort of thing. But what the Merlin team did so well is they worked really closely with the Mojang creative team, and they designed together, and they actually designed using the game, too, which was really great. So they would actually think about what it would look like in game, and then what that player mode is like in real life. And so I think what you’ll really discover is a unique, immersive experience that brings to life what you would want to see if you were to actually get to step into a real ‘Minecraft’ world and get to experience the gravity and the physics and the smell of the different biomes.”
Jobson says Mojang and Merlin Entertainments see the need for Minecraft World to balance between “commitment to delivering real emotion and making it really believable” and “this sense of epicness.”
“There are some features in that land that I’m still not quite sure how we’re even doing it from an engineering perspective,” Jobson said. “There’s a giant floating island in the middle of it, and that we held on to from one of our initial visuals. And sometimes you go really big with your creative vision, but somehow we put our arms around it. I’ll never know. But we all believe that we really need to have this feature in it. It’s going to look quite spectacular.”
Jobson notes that along with the world’s first “Minecraft” rollercoaster and the world’s biggest “Minecraft” retail store, the park will have “Minecraft”-themed dining, “which has led to some very interesting conversations.” “Like, what can you eat? What do you want to eat from the Minecraft world? Because clearly, we want it to be appetizing,” Jobson said.
Walters says following the massive success of 2025’s “A Minecraft Movie,” it was clear to Microsoft Gaming “how excited people were just to be engaging in a different way with what they know and love within ‘Minecraft,’” and that response inspired the collaboration on Minecraft World.
“The natural evolution is to make in-real-life immersive experiences,” Walters said. “And I think it’s going to be really successful. Just that idea of sharing what you play every day with people who don’t play every day, but know it’s really important to you, and now they can bring their whole family or their friends to see what ‘Minecraft’ is like in real life. And I think it’ll get people understanding more around what ‘Minecraft’ is, and will bring people into the game even more. There is that kind of connected ecosystem where we engage in it in one way and it reminds you about a world you built five years ago that you might want to play again, so it brings players back into the game.”
Mojang and Merlin Entertainments note the project will also include collaboration with “a selection of iconic ‘Minecraft’ creators to help bring the universe to life in the most authentic way possible for the game’s global community of fans.”
See below for images of the Minecraft World concept art provided by Merlin Entertainment and Microsoft.
Merlin Entertainment
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