International football fans, unite. "Dallas" is a 2026 FIFA World Cup host city — for games in Arlington. The news, announced Thursday, June 16, caps a multi-year effort by The Dallas 2026 World Cup Bid Committee to bring the tournament to DFW.
AT&T Stadium will be one of 16 North American venues to host four to six games of the prestigious international football tournament. Canada and Mexico each will host three matches.
Dallas 2026 organizers, which include a list of key local players, pitched North Texas' cultural diversity and AT&T's elite stadium status to the FIFA selection committee.
As soccer fans are well aware, The World Cup is a month-long tournament pitting elite and burgeoning sides. Powerhouse teams such as Brazil, Italy, Spain, and France face off against smaller nations such as Ghana and Peru in a showdown watched by billions across the globe — many who take vacations to travel or view the action at home.
Notably, pro soccer’s megastars such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi return to their birth countries to compete, much like the Olympics.
For some perspective on the games’ scope, these World Cup matches could equate to Dallas-Fort Worth hosting six Super Bowls, by the sheer numbers.
DFW, of course, is no stranger to the big stage; it has already played host to a Super Bowl and multiple NCAA championships, and it hosted World Cup events in 1994. Expect a slew of developments, activations, and events as the World Cup nears. WFAA has a handy guide on what to expect as it draws nearer, including the economic impact to the area.
In addition to DFW, Houston also was named as a 2026 host city.
Jack Black, Jason Momoa, and Sebastian Hansen in A Minecraft Movie.
One reason the majority of movies based on video games have failed is because their filmmakers didn’t understand how to translate the appeal of the game to the relatively-limited storytelling ability of film. Players can often spend hundreds of hours in the world of a video game, and trying to condense that experience down into 90-120 minutes is close to an impossible task.
Minecraft, a sandbox adventure game which contains countless possibilities for its players, turns out to be the exact right type of game to turn into a movie, at least in the proper hands. A Minecraft Movie is completely and gloriously ridiculous from beginning to end, with the filmmakers - led by director Jared Hess - understanding that to make a movie about a game in which (almost) anything can happen, you have to match that energy.
And so they tell an uproarious story in which Steve (Jack Black) is a miner on Earth who discovers a portal to the Overworld (aka the world of Minecraft) where everything from animals to plants to food is made up of blocks. After getting trapped in the Nether, a dangerous, hell-like dimension, he sends his trusty dog back to Earth with the cube that opens the portal between Earth and the Overworld.
Through a hilarious series of events too detailed to properly explain here, the cube falls into the hands of ‘80s video game legend Garett Garrison (Jason Momoa). When Henry (Sebastian Hansen), a 14-year-old who’s just moved to town with his sister, Natalie (Emma Myers), discovers the cube at Garett’s store, the two of them - along with Natalie and local realtor Dawn (Danielle Brooks) - get pulled into the Overworld as well.
Usually when a film is written by a team of five writers, as is the case here, it’s a sign that the screenplay will be less than cohesive. While they didn’t manage to come up with a comprehensible story, they do fill the running time with as many gags as possible, a strategy that pays off handsomely. Taking the creative ethos of Minecraft and amplifying it immeasurably, the film features too many off-the-wall jokes to know where to begin.
The connections between the human characters are about as random as can be, and yet due to the nature of the “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” approach, they develop a strong bond nonetheless. Steve and Garett are both pompous characters whose egos are the sources for much of their humor. Henry and Natalie bring the heart, while Dawn complements the group well despite not really fitting in with everyone else.
Of course, the whole point of making A Minecraft Movie is to pay tribute to the game, and they are able to throw plenty of bones to the gamers while still entertaining anyone who’s never played it. They incorporate the essentials of the game like building massive structures, crafting items, and interacting with creatures (aka mobs), but in such a fun and engaging way that it doesn’t really matter if a lot of it doesn’t make complete sense.
Black’s style of acting is one you either love or hate, and this might be the epitome of a Jack Black performance. He dials up virtually every line he delivers, a manic tour-de-force that sets the tone for everyone and everything else in the film. Momoa is also great, delving into comedy in a way he rarely has before and succeeding mightily. Hansen and Myers both work well, giving the film the youthful feel it required, and while Brooks is mostly along for the ride, she gets in a few good scenes of her own.
Could A Minecraft Movie now take the throne as the best adaptation of a video game ever? That’s purely subjective, but the way Hess and his team put the pedal to the metal from minute one and never let up, it certainly deserves to be part of the conversation. It’s a silly, fast-moving romp that works both as an homage to the game and as a stand-alone movie.
