Plans approved by the Bureau of Land Management for filming near Moab last week called for “block boulders,” a “portal door” and riding mechanical pigs around a campground.

For anyone familiar with “Minecraft,” the block-building video game adapted into a blockbuster film, the clues are stacking up.

Warner Bros. Discovery identifies Red Zone Pictures as a subsidiary in its annual subsidiary list for 2025. Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures produced the first “Minecraft” movie and are also behind the forthcoming sequel.

The sequel was already in production in New Zealand by May, according to the New Zealand Film Commission.

Videos described by their posters as showing a “Minecraft” sequel set near Moab have circulated widely on social media. They show squared-off cactus props, block-shaped scenery and a tall, dark rectangular structure resembling the outline of a Minecraft portal.

Separate social media posts place Jack Black, who is returning as Steve in “A Minecraft Movie Squared,” in the Moab area. For example, local river outfitter Paddle Moab posted a photograph Aug. 11 showing Black greeting guests at a boat ramp.

The post did not say why Black was in the area or link him to the Red Zone Pictures production.

Taken together, the evidence strongly suggests the production is “A Minecraft Movie Squared,” the sequel scheduled for release next July. The production’s identity, however, has not been publicly confirmed.

“We cannot comment on the production beyond what is already in the public permit,” Bega Metzner, director of the Moab to Monument Valley Film Commission, said in an email.

The BLM authorized Red Zone Pictures to conduct filming and related activities from July 29 through Aug. 17 at the Ledge D and E campgrounds along Kane Creek Road and the Rocky Rapid upper parking area along Highway 128. The project description said filming would occur Aug. 10-13 and separately called for helicopter filming Aug. 7.

The authorization capped the production at 150 cast and crew members and 50 vehicles.

At Ledge, crews planned to cover existing boulders with what the BLM project description calls “block boulders.” Filming would also involve riding mechanical “pigs” around the campground. At Rocky Rapid, crews planned to construct a “portal door.”

Those details closely match elements of “Minecraft.” The game takes place in a world made largely of blocks that players mine and use to build. Players can also saddle and ride pigs, steering them with a carrot on a stick.

Portals provide passage between the game’s different dimensions. One of the best-known examples, the Nether portal, is a tall rectangular frame made from dark obsidian blocks, resembling the shape and color of the structure shown in the social media videos.

Jared Hess — a Salt Lake County resident and Brigham Young University graduate who directed “Napoleon Dynamite” — is returning to direct “A Minecraft Movie Squared,” while Jason Momoa will reprise his role as Garrett and Kirsten Dunst joins the cast as Alex.

Read more: How this Utah filmmaker created the wild block world of ‘A Minecraft Movie,’ capturing an ‘epic, ridiculous quest’

The original “A Minecraft Movie,” a live-action adaptation of the video game, became one of 2025’s biggest box-office successes, grossing $960.4 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.

This story was first published by The Times-Independent.