Jason Momoa can’t turn on his Zoom camera. The superstar actor is not tech illiterate; he’s just on the set of “A Minecraft Movie Squared,” the highly anticipated sequel to 2025’s family blockbuster — and, as he puts it, looks “absolutely ridiculous.”
“You just have to trust me, I look pretty silly,” Momoa says, laughing as we log onto the video call. He can’t say much about reprising his role, but teases: “We are definitely playing pretty hard over here.”
Play has been a major part of Momoa’s everyday life since he was a child — all thanks to his mother, Coni.
“I was raised by a single mother who was an artist and always encouraged me to play,” Momoa says. “She’s the one who taught me how to climb and enjoy being outdoors. She really supported the arts and creativity. I didn’t have brothers and sisters or anyone to play with, so I would build Lego with her.”
Once Momoa had kids of his own — Lola Iolani and Nakoa-Wolf Momoa — he made sure to pass down those lessons about the importance of family playtime. And Lego was right at the center.
“Those were always the big gifts,” Momoa says about the colorful brick sets. “It was really essential for my kids, us sitting together and being able to build these different worlds.” One of their most memorable family builds was the iconic “Star Wars” starship, the Millennium Falcon. “We got the Death Star, too,” Momoa adds gleefully. “It was a big one for Wolfie and me, like that was the longest ever [build], but ‘Star Wars’ was such a huge one for us.”
Those cherished family memories were a huge reason why Momoa was “honored” to partner with Lego on its “Never Stop Playing” campaign. The PSA is timed ahead of World Play Day on June 11. It’s the Lego Group’s annual observation of the UN’s International Day of Play, a day dedicated to celebrating and protecting children’s right to play.
“It was an amazing opportunity to, the older my kids are getting, have something that really connects with their childhood and these memories. They were really excited that I was doing this,” Momoa says. “It’s also something that’s just extremely important to me; my whole life is about playing. It’s such an important thing — to keep creativity alive. That’s my M.O. I had the most amazing time shooting this.”
The whimsical PSA features Momoa as Lego’s newest Playmaker. His mission: help families rediscover the power of play, as 61% percent of parents surveyed by the Lego Group admitted that their child plays less than they did when they were younger. The solution: a simple “brick click,” the act of clicking two Lego bricks together.
The new research, conducted among 30,000 parents and 15,000 children aged 5-12 globally, found that five hours of playtime a week boosts family happiness and wellbeing, but 44% of the families surveyed didn’t hit that threshold. In fact, the data showed that more than 60 million families don’t play together at all, with those surveyed citing barriers such as work, screen time, household chores, cost and a lack of safe spaces as impediments to fun.
Momoa has a long professional history with Lego: he voiced Aquaman in 2019’s “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part,” and he has the mini-figure to match. Aquaman was Momoa’s first lookalike Lego, and he couldn’t wait to show it to his awestruck kids.
“They love playing with it, and they can have me against Black Manta — it’s a trip,” he says, adding that his kids aren’t the only youngsters who the toy brings joy. “To go to hospitals and sign them, it’s a beautiful thing to be part of the Lego brand.”
Since then, Momoa’s “Dune” warrior, Duncan Idaho, and his “Minecraft” gamer, Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison, have also been commemorated in brick form. What is it like to have all these playable toys that look like him?
“It’s pretty awesome!” Momoa exclaims. “You grow up playing with these your whole life, and then they make a little character about something you’ve done — it’s flattering, and it’s cool.” He adds, “They made me a special one as the Playmaker.”
Momoa’s latest DC role, the comic book antihero Lobo, has a Lego minifigure, too, but the design isn’t based on the actor’s “Supergirl” look — at least, not yet. (Your move, Lego.) Nevertheless, Momoa is still thrilled to make his long-held dream of playing the character a reality in the film, starring Milly Alcock, which debuts later this month. “It’s definitely a dream-come-true moment,” he says, thinking back 40 years to when he first saw the character in the comics. “Hopefully it really resonates with people and they like it.”
Up next, Momoa will appear in the third installment of Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” movie, bringing this conversation full circle as Wolfie also booked a role in the film. “He’s always been with me on set,” Momoa said, declining to dive into details of seeing his son in action. “The nice thing is, when they were little, I’d always bring my babies everywhere. You can easily bring them everywhere and be able to constantly play.”
One of Momoa’s most playful roles to date is his delightfully deranged villain Dante from the “Fast and Furious” movies. The actor says he’s “waiting to hear” when he’ll get to reprise that role in the long-awaited franchise finale, “Fast Forever,” but he’s eager to get back in the game. “That’s the ultimate play, to be fully creative like that,” Momoa says of the character. “I don’t get too many opportunities to do stuff like that, so it was fun.”
Jason Momoa in Lego’s “Never Stop Playing” campaign.
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