Theme park enthusiasts’ dreams of mines will be fulfilled in 2027 with the debut of Minecraft World.
A $70 million project between Microsoft’s Minecraft maker Mojang Studios and theme park giant Merlin Entertainments (owner of the Legoland theme park), the attraction will be the first-ever theme park based on the popular building video game at Chessington World Adventures in the UK.
The companies’ description of Minecraft World in Chessington, a 35-minute direct train ride from London, says: “Inspired by gaming’s most iconic biomes, mobs and items, Minecraft World brings the best-selling game of all time to the physical world for the first time in a major theme park. The land includes thrilling world-first coasters, interactive adventures, epic block-built playscapes, and themed retail and dining.”
Ahead of announcing the Minecraft World news during Saturday’s Minecraft LIVE presentation, Kayleen Walters, head of Mojang Studios and franchise development at Microsoft Gaming, and Angela Jobson, senior vice president of global brand marketing at Merlin Entertainments, broke off the new partnership in an interview with Variety.
First of all, executives have made it clear that Minecraft World is not a theme park adaptation of the blockbuster hit “A Minecraft Movie” (or its sequel, due out in 2027). The content is based on how to play the game “Minecraft”.
“When players come and play Minecraft, it’s a whole new experience for them,” Walters said. “They have agency, and they choose how they play. So every time you press the play button, it’s a different experience for you. And that’s how we think about expanding beyond the game as well. We want to give the player agency, and we want to give the fans and the community agency and experience. So we’ve been thinking about immersive experiences in our own space, rather than the cinematic IP space. This is really a unique Minecraft experience that’s all its own.”
Walters continued, “I mean, they didn’t use movie sets or anything like that. But what the Merlin team did really well was work very closely with the creative team at Mojang, design together, and actually use the game to design it. It was really great. I mean, they actually used the game to design what it would look like in the game. And then we really thought about what that player mode would be like in real life. And I think what you’ll really discover is a unique, immersive experience that makes what you want a reality.” See if you can actually step into the real Minecraft world and experience the gravity, physics, and smells of different biomes. ”
Jobson said Mojang and Merlin Entertainment believe Minecraft World needs to strike a balance between “a commitment to conveying authentic emotion and making it really believable” and “this sense of grandeur.”
“There are some features of that land that we still don’t quite understand how to do from an engineering standpoint,” Jobson said. “There’s a giant floating island in the middle of it, and we kept that from one of our first visuals. And sometimes we do something really big with our creative vision, but somehow we’ve got our arms around it. I’ll never know. But we all believe we really need to put this feature in. It’s going to be pretty spectacular.”
In addition to the world’s first Minecraft roller coaster and the world’s largest Minecraft retail store, the park also features Minecraft-themed dining, which “led to some really interesting conversations,” Jobson said. “For example, what can you eat? What do you want to eat from the Minecraft world? Obviously, we want something appetizing,” Jobson said.
Walters said that after the huge success of 2025’s A Minecraft Movie, it was clear to Microsoft Gaming “how excited people were to approach what they know and love in Minecraft in a different way,” and that response inspired the collaboration on Minecraft World.
“The natural evolution is to create real-world immersive experiences,” Walters says. “And I think it’s going to be really successful. Just the idea of sharing something that you play every day with people who don’t play every day but know that it’s really important to you, bring your whole family and friends and see what Minecraft is like in real life.” And I think that’s going to give people a better understanding of what Minecraft is, and it’s going to bring people into the game even more. It reminds you that there’s such a connected ecosystem that we participate in unilaterally. It brings players back to the game because it’s a world we built five years ago that makes them want to play again.”
Mojang and Merlin Entertainments say the project will also include collaborations with “selected iconic Minecraft creators who will help bring the universe to life in the most authentic way possible for the game’s global fan community.”
See below for images of Minecraft World concept art from Merlin Entertainment and Microsoft.
merlin entertainment
