Shack Chat: Which video game character should Jack Black play next?

For those who haven't been following the box office, A Minecraft Movie has wildly overachieved. Between the money earned by The Super Mario Bros. Movie, A Minecraft Movie, and Borderlands (well, they can't all be winners), that can only point to the conclusion that Jack Black is the king of video game movies. We don't make the rules. Look, Chris Pratt is playing Mario, does it look like we make the rules?

Anyhow, since we're living in a Jack Black world, apparently, the Shacknews staff is taking guesses on who the old Tenacious D frontman could play next. Take a look at our choices and feel free to play along and give us your choice.

Question: Which video game character should Jack Black play next?

Rufus - Ozzie Mejia, Senior Jack Black... follower, I guess?

I almost said Jack Black should step into the role of E. Honda, but it's 2025 and that kind of racial appropriation is not ok, man. So while thinking about the rest of the Street Fighter roster, it totally hit me that he could fill the role of another large individual, one who's a totally obnoxious loudmouth. And he'd be American, to boot!

So yeah, why not let Jack Back play the role of Rufus from Street Fighter IV? Can you imagine him pounding down burgers, rambling on about all the things he'd do to Ken Masters if he could only get his hands on him? Then, when a fight actually begins, he dazzles everyone with unlikely agility and grace? Rufus is a vibe and clearly one of those Street Fighter characters that came at the right moment in time, because the guy hasn't turned up in the series since. If we're getting a Street Fighter movie at some point, the studio could make much worse casting choices.

(Give this one time, I'm sure they will.)

Tom Nook - TJ Denzer, Senior hefty schemer

Tom Nook has a reputation in video games. He’s never met a “legitimate” business enterprise he couldn’t use to score big on Bells. He’s been putting players on the hook for debt for decades at this point, and he’ll likely continue to do so in the future. More importantly, I think there’s really only one guy who could play him well short of Ben Stein putting on some pounds, and that would be Mr. Black.

I’m actually not sure if they’d do Animal Crossing as a movie or a TV series, but I think there’s all sorts of fun to be had in a story about a new villager coming to a location full of animal folk and having to interact and engage with that world to pay off some debt. To that end, you just have to have Tom Nook in the game, and I think Jack Black would pull him off well.

Black has that husky guy energy with a touch of mischievousness and confidence that I feel would fit Nook quite well. He might have to tone down the excitement, because Nook is almost always looking sleepy unless he’s surprised. But I think you could really do some great stuff with a loan sharking Tom Nook played by Jack Black in a sort of fish-out-of-water trying-to-make-the-best-of-it plot where he’s the Villager’s all-too-friendly debtor.

Side note: I think Mindy Kaling would make a great Isabelle.

Harrier Du Bois - Sam Chandler, Tequila Sunset

Remember when people doubted that Heath Ledger could play the Joker? Remember when everyone thought that goofy dad Hal from Malcolm in the Middle couldn’t do a serious role and then we got Walter White in Breaking Bad? Remember how Adam Sandler used to do good comedy movies, then did terrible ones, and suddenly did an unbelievable performance in Uncut Gems? I don’t believe Jack Black can do a serious role. I want to be proven so incredibly wrong.

Harrier Du Bois is the alcoholic, drug-addled, human trainwreck, probably-suffering-from-psychosis protagonist of my personal GOTY of 2019, Disco Elysium. He’s a bearded, scruffy, rotund bloke who is down on his luck, at the bottom of the bottle, ready to throw it all away. That is, until he’s assigned to the murder case of The Hanged Man.

HDB is such a fantastic character. He’s got layers, conflicts, struggles, a vivacious personality, and more. I want to see Jack Black bring the role to life in a performance of a lifetime. I especially want to see him sing DE’s iconic song, Smallest Church in Saint-Saens during the karaoke quest. I need this like a shark needs blood.

Captain Price - Donovan Erskine, 7th Prestige

It’s surprising that Hollywood never got a Call of Duty movie off the ground. But with how many war films the industry churns out, I’d honestly prefer it if a potential CoD movie went in an entirely different direction. Give me a wacky, weird, goofy war comedy where the always-serious Captain Price is an in-over-his-head general played by Jack Black. To make it even better, you could surround him with characters (like Soap) who are all completely straight-laced soldiers. It would certainly be a mess, but probably funny as hell.

Link- Steve Tyminski, THE Stevetendo Show! Why not?

What video game character should Jack Black play next? Let’s go nuts here and let him play Link in The Legend of Zelda movies. It would be interesting to see Jack Black in a strong, silent type role, but that might bring out more of his acting skills. It would also be fun to see a song written by Jack Black that is just Link grunts, shouts, and yells.

You could also go the Minecraft route and have him wear a colored outfit like the character similar to what they did with Steve. Brown shirt and pants with a red tie and he’s a dead ringer for Donkey Kong. I was going to go with Spider-Man for this, but I wasn’t sure if there would be some saying Spider-Man isn’t a video game character. So I went with Link instead!

Those are our choices. What would you pick for Jack Black's next video game movie role? Let us know in the comments or head over to the Official Shacknews Community Discord and talk our ears off about it.

Shack Staff

Shack Staff stories are a collective effort with multiple staff members contributing. Many of our lists often involve entires from several editors, and our weekly Shack Chat is something we all contribute to as a group.