Agent Derp: Stronghold Protocol

Agent Derp: Stronghold Protocol
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Alex Brow
Screenplay by	Alex Brow Talia Grant Owen Mercer
Story by	Jackson Gold Freddie Goodwin
Based on	Minecraft by Mojang Studios
Produced by	Alex Brow Naomi Elridge Lena Cross Jackson Gold
Starring	Scott Menville Jenny Slate John Boyega Jeffrey Wright Patti Harrison Rami Malek Ruth Wilson Steven Yeun Giancarlo Esposito Ke Huy Quan Sam Rockwell Shohreh Aghdashloo Gugu Mbatha-Raw
Edited by	Celia Ford Matthew Lane
Music by	Weston Doyle Maya Chen
Production companies	Mob Studios Mob Studios Animation Mob Productions Mojang Studios
Release dates	June 28, 2036 (2036-06-28) (Dolby Theatre) July 10, 2036 (2036-07-10) (United States)
Running time	132 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$195 million
Box office	$65.0 million

Agent Derp: Stronghold Protocol is a 2036 American computer-animated espionage comedy adventure film based on the 2011 video game Minecraft, developed by Mojang Studios. Produced by Mob Studios, Mob Studios Animation, Mob Productions, and Mojang Studios, it is the eighth film in the Minecraft Universe (MIU), the second film of Minecraft Universe: Chapter Two, and a sequel to Agent Derp (2030) and the Disney+ miniseries Stronghold (2035). The film was directed by Alex Brow from a screenplay he co-wrote with Talia Grant and Owen Mercer, based on a story by former director Jackson Gold and Freddie Goodwin.

Scott Menville stars as Derp / Agent D-0, alongside Jenny Slate, John Boyega, Jeffrey Wright, Patti Harrison, Rami Malek, Ruth Wilson, Steven Yeun, Giancarlo Esposito, Ke Huy Quan, Sam Rockwell, Shohreh Aghdashloo, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. The film follows Derp, Cipher, and Flint after Director Zero escapes into the stronghold network and activates a system capable of replacing the recorded identities of Bureau personnel, settlement leaders, and entire communities.

A sequel to Agent Derp entered development following the first film's release, with Gold and Goodwin developing a story about Derp attempting to work as a legitimate operative. The project was announced in March 2033 under the title Agent Derp: Stronghold Protocol, with an August 15, 2035, release date. The miniseries Stronghold was developed as the first portion of the film's storyline. Voice recording began in August 2034 and principal animation began that December.

Following a poorly received internal assembly, Mob Studios paused production in April 2035. Gold and Goodwin left their positions as director and screenwriter the following month, while retaining producer and story credits, respectively. On June 18, Brow was announced as director and co-writer alongside Grant and Mercer. Brow said he assumed control to "ensure it is a quality that meets a standard like the previous few films that have been released". The film was delayed to June 19, 2036, as part of a wider postponement of every unreleased Chapter Two project.

Brow, Grant, and Mercer completed the replacement screenplay in August 2035. Principal voice recording resumed in September, and principal animation restarted in October using revised character performances and selected environments, props, and technical systems retained from the original production. Additional voice recording concluded in February 2036, the film moved from June 19 to July 10 that March, and production was completed on June 20.

Agent Derp: Stronghold Protocol premiered at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on June 28, 2036, and was released in the United States on July 10. The film received positive reviews, with critics praising Brow's direction, Menville and Slate's performances, the revised character focus, animation, action sequences, and integration of comedy with the identity conflict. Criticism was directed toward its dense continuity, large ensemble, and extended second act. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an "A" grade.

The film earned $18.7 million from Thursday-night previews in the United States and Canada and had grossed $65.0 million worldwide by its opening day.

Plot

Several months after the events of Stronghold, the reformed Obsidian Bureau operates under a civilian council while attempting to integrate the generated operatives created by the Black Index. Cipher supervises the organisation's public records, Flint commands its field teams, and Derp works with Needle repairing emergency routes that connect strongholds to settlements across the Overworld.

While repairing an unauthorised portal outside Meridian Crossroads, Derp accidentally redirects a Bureau verification signal into the settlement. The market's signs, roads, employment records, and public buildings begin changing, and residents gradually remember Meridian as a Bureau command depot rather than a trading community. Derp remains unaffected because the system cannot reconcile the contradictory accounts of his recruitment, operative number, employment history, and previous repairs.

Cipher identifies the event as the first stage of the Stronghold Protocol, an emergency continuity system originally intended to preserve Bureau authority during a global alteration of memory. Director Zero, having escaped into the stronghold network with Agent Sable, activates five command facilities and begins replacing public records with histories generated by the Black Index.

Flint and K-0 evacuate Meridian while Oriole locates residents whose identities have already been removed from the settlement's records. K-0 remembers protecting Meridian with Flint years earlier, although Flint possesses no memory of either the mission or the friendship. Flint initially treats the memories as manufactured evidence, angering K-0.

Councillor Mara Vey refuses Obsidian's request to shut down every stronghold because doing so could destroy the generated operatives whose identities remain connected to the network. Dr. Ilya Voss explains that the Protocol works in four stages: it changes records, redirects physical infrastructure, alters how communities recognise individuals, and eventually forces the targeted people to remember themselves according to the replacement history.

Director Zero broadcasts a declaration that the publicly supervised Bureau is an unauthorised organisation created after its original leadership was erased. It offers the generated agents permanent recognition and complete histories if they support restoration of the former Bureau. Sable accepts, arguing that people like her will never be secure while others can dismiss their memories as artificial.

The Broker reveals that he stole an early routing directory during the first film and unknowingly hid part of the Protocol inside the Wayfinder Atlas. Cipher retrieves the directory from his confiscated belongings and discovers that the five strongholds feed into an original command facility absent from every surviving map.

Derp, Needle, Cipher, Flint, K-0, Oriole, and D-27 divide into teams. Cipher and Voss attempt to separate the generated operatives' independent memories from the Black Index. Flint and K-0 travel through affected settlements to evacuate agents targeted for replacement. Derp and Needle use their unstable portable portal to enter maintenance routes that the official network does not recognise.

At Greywick, the Protocol replaces a farming settlement with a Bureau evidence warehouse. Derp repairs a minecart line while its tracks repeatedly change destination according to his assigned identity, producing a chase through interrogation rooms, farms, archives, and unfinished corridors occupying the same space. Needle discovers that every failed attempt to classify Derp creates another valid maintenance route.

Nia Vale, Lyra, and Sola help preserve the histories of affected communities by recording names, relationships, and local decisions outside Bureau systems. Cipher realises that the Protocol does not merely rewrite the past; it removes every choice made after the official record was created, reducing people to the roles assigned to them.

Zero captures Cipher and offers to restore the memories she voluntarily removed after helping design the Black Index. Cipher refuses, saying that recovering the original record would not erase the responsibility of the person she has since become. Zero begins replacing her with an earlier version who believes generated identities should remain Bureau property.

Flint and K-0 reach the Archive Stronghold, where Zero has stored every mission attributed to the generated agents. Flint cannot recover the memories K-0 expects, but chooses to trust him and asks K-0 to become his partner in the present rather than treating the disputed past as the only basis for their relationship. Together they free Oriole and several captured agents.

Obsidian enters the emergency command chamber and attempts to revoke Zero's authority using his former director credentials. Zero rejects him as an obsolete identity and reveals that the Protocol was designed to replace any leader who could not maintain institutional continuity, including Obsidian. The encounter forces Obsidian to admit that he concealed the system because he feared an organisation capable of replacing him would expose how replaceable his own authority had always been.

Sable leads an assault on Meridian Crossroads as the settlement enters the final replacement stage. Residents begin wearing Bureau uniforms, referring to homes as offices, and forgetting personal relationships. Sable insists that the process is necessary to give generated operatives a history nobody can deny.

Cipher escapes with help from Voss and confronts Sable. She demonstrates that the Protocol has also begun deleting Sable's experiences after her original file was written, including the choices she made during Stronghold. Sable realises that Zero's promised legitimacy requires her to remain permanently identical to the record that created her.

Derp and Needle enter the original command stronghold through an unregistered maintenance shaft. The facility repeatedly assigns Derp different identities—including delivery worker, saboteur, director, prisoner, and nonexistent employee—but each version conflicts with another valid Bureau record. The contradictions spread through the network and prevent Zero from completing the replacement of Meridian.

Zero offers Derp a stable history in which he was always an elite Agent D-0, respected by the Bureau and responsible for its greatest missions. Derp rejects the offer because the record removes every mistake, accident, repair, and relationship that made him who he is. He tells Zero that being official is not the same as being real.

Needle connects Derp's personnel archive to the master routing block. Instead of destroying the strongholds, Derp deliberately misrepairs the routing system so that every facility must process all contradictory versions of him simultaneously. Cipher uses the resulting failure to separate the generated agents' living memories from Zero's command authority.

Flint, K-0, Oriole, and the generated operatives defend the central archive while Sable turns against Zero and prevents it from restoring the original files. Zero attempts to overwrite itself into every Bureau employee, but the network recognises the conflicting Derp records as equally authoritative and collapses under the contradiction.

The strongholds shut down and the altered settlements regain their current identities, although some residents retain memories of both histories. Zero's body disintegrates as its emergency authority is removed from the Black Index. It refuses Cipher's offer to preserve it as an independent person, insisting that it cannot exist without being the Bureau.

The civilian council grants generated operatives ownership of their records and the right to leave the organisation. K-0 accepts Flint's offer to begin a new partnership, Sable agrees to help repair the communities she altered, and Obsidian publicly releases the remaining classified systems created during his leadership.

Meridian Crossroads is rebuilt without removing the architectural changes caused by the Protocol. Derp is formally appointed the Bureau's field repair agent, but his identification badge immediately changes to three incompatible operative numbers. Cipher decides to leave the error unresolved.

In a mid-credits scene, Nia and Cipher examine records recovered from the collapsed network. Several files describe a white-eyed player as the original builder of Meridian, Greywick, and settlements that could not have existed at the same time. When Cipher deletes one file, it reappears under the title "THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE".

In a post-credits scene, the Broker discovers that Derp's misrepair has opened a portal inside his detention cell. He attempts to escape but arrives on Mushroom Island, where Needle has already placed a sign identifying the portal as defective.

Voice cast

• Scott Menville as Derp / Agent D-0:
  An accident-prone repair worker and Obsidian Bureau operative whose contradictory personnel history prevents Director Zero from generating a stable replacement for him. Brow described Derp as the only person in the organization whose mistakes have created a record too inconsistent for the Protocol to classify, making his apparent incompetence strategically useful. Menville said the film places Derp in a more difficult position than the first installment because he is no longer trying to convince others that he belongs in the Bureau; instead, he must decide what kind of agent he intends to become.
• Jenny Slate as Cipher:
  The Bureau's chief analyst and architect of its public records system. Cipher attempts to preserve the independent identities of generated operatives while preventing Director Zero from using them to take control of settlements. Slate said Cipher's role continues the moral decision she made at the conclusion of Stronghold, but the film forces her to defend that decision outside the controlled environment of Bureau facilities.
• John Boyega as Flint:
  The Bureau's field commander, who leads its response after strongholds begin replacing local governments, emergency records, and public memory. Flint's relationship with K-0 remains complicated by K-0's memories of a partnership Flint cannot recover.
• Jeffrey Wright as Director Zero:
  An artificial command identity assembled from the authority, emergency instructions, and recorded decisions of previous Bureau directors. Zero considers the publicly supervised Bureau an unauthorized replacement and activates the Stronghold Protocol to restore what it regards as the original organization. Wright recorded several versions of Zero's dialogue to distinguish the character's administrative, persuasive, and coercive voices.
• Patti Harrison as Needle:
  A Bureau technician, repair specialist, and Derp's principal operational partner. Needle develops portable tools capable of identifying alterations made to physical records and settlement infrastructure.
• Rami Malek as Agent K-0 / Kestrel:
  A generated operative who remembers serving as Flint's partner during missions absent from the Bureau's surviving public history. K-0 opposes Zero but fears that destroying the stronghold network could also destroy the people generated by it.
• Ruth Wilson as Agent Sable:
  A generated intelligence officer who escaped with Director Zero at the conclusion of Stronghold. Sable accepts that her personal history was manufactured but believes that its consistency gives her greater legitimacy than the reformed Bureau.
• Steven Yeun as Agent Oriole:
  A generated recovery specialist who helps the Bureau locate people and settlements erased from the Protocol's official history.
• Giancarlo Esposito as Obsidian:
  The Bureau's former director, whose emergency contingency systems were combined to create Director Zero. Obsidian assists the response while resisting attempts to treat his knowledge as proof that he should regain control of the organization.
• Ke Huy Quan as Agent D-27:
  A courier and field operative whose contradictory service record suggests that generated personnel briefly existed before the collapse of the World Loom.
• Sam Rockwell as the Broker:
  A former Bureau operative and black-market information dealer imprisoned after the first film. The Broker possesses a stolen directory of strongholds omitted from the Wayfinder Atlas.
• Shohreh Aghdashloo as Councillor Mara Vey:
  The chair of the civilian council supervising the Bureau. Vey attempts to protect settlements without granting the organization the emergency authority demanded by Zero.
• Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Dr. Ilya Voss:
  A memory engineer who helped construct the Black Index verification systems. Voss studies whether identities rewritten by the Protocol can be restored without replacing them with an earlier version.

Michelle Yeoh and Ayo Edebiri are expected to reprise their roles as Sola and Nia Vale in supporting appearances, while Jodie Comer is expected to return as Lyra. Mob Studios has not announced the complete cast or the actors voicing several new generated operatives.

Production

Development

Original development

Alex Brow took over as director and co-writer following the film's 2035 production pause.

Gold and Goodwin began discussing a sequel to Agent Derp during the first film's post-production in 2030, when its mistaken-identity premise had already evolved from a single joke into a larger story about whether Derp could remain himself after the Obsidian Bureau formally accepted him as an operative. Their earliest version followed Derp after his accidental recruitment became permanent and the improvisation that had previously allowed him to survive suddenly became a liability inside an organization attempting to operate under public oversight. The pair developed a treatment in which the Wayfinder Atlas began issuing routes and emergency orders under the names of nonexistent agents, an idea that expanded after the conclusion of Agent Derp, where the Bureau opened portions of its infrastructure to civilian supervision and converted hidden strongholds into a public emergency network. Mob Studios formally announced the sequel during its Chapter Two presentation on March 28, 2033, with Gold attached to direct and produce, Goodwin writing, and Menville, Slate, and Boyega returning; the studio dated the film for August 15, 2035. Grant's Disney+ miniseries Stronghold was developed simultaneously as the first portion of the story, introducing the Black Index, generated operatives, K-0, Sable, Oriole, and Director Zero before concluding with Zero's escape into the wider stronghold network. Gold and Goodwin participated in continuity discussions, but Grant retained creative authority over the miniseries so that its central question—whether people created from institutional records possessed independent lives—would be resolved before the feature expanded the conflict beyond Bureau facilities. Goodwin completed a production screenplay in July 2034 that followed Derp and the reorganized Bureau through nine principal strongholds while Zero attempted to restore the organization's former command structure, and principal voice recording began the following month before animation commenced in December.

Production pause and creative overhaul

An internal assembly was screened for Brow, Cross, Elridge, Grant, and senior Mob Studios Animation personnel in April 2035, combining completed voice performances, storyboards, layout animation, unfinished character work, and temporary effects into a version reportedly running approximately 154 minutes. Although executives praised individual action concepts, production design, the cast's ensemble timing, and several sequences involving Derp and Needle, the assembly repeated explanations already resolved by Stronghold, reduced Cipher and Flint's decisions to setup for later projects, and kept Derp outside the principal identity conflict for long stretches. The film moved repeatedly between broad physical comedy, procedural espionage, and extended dialogue concerning the Black Index without allowing any one character's decisions to connect those tones, and Cross believed the problem was not that comedy and institutional drama could not coexist but that the screenplay had not established why Derp's way of understanding the world was necessary to the story. Mob Studios paused voice recording, layout, and character animation on April 28 while retaining its design, environment, rigging, editorial, and technical teams; Gold and Goodwin attempted revisions during May but left their positions as director and screenwriter before the end of the month. The studio retained Gold as a producer and credited both men with the underlying story, describing the departures as a creative restructuring rather than a rejection of the entire production. Brow was announced as director on June 18, with Grant joining the screenplay team to preserve the generated operatives and consequences of Stronghold and Mercer joining because of his work on Chapter Two's rules governing memory, reconstruction, and artificial identity. Brow said the existing production contained "a lot of incredible design, performances and individual sequences" but lacked a story that could only be led by Derp, and explained that he had taken the helm to "ensure it is a quality that meets a standard like the previous few films that have been released". The film was delayed from August 15, 2035, to June 19, 2036, during Mob Studios' postponement of every unreleased Chapter Two project, with Cross stating that the additional time would be spent on rewriting, new voice work, animation, and editorial reconstruction rather than simply extending the final rendering period. Trade publications continued to report a production budget of approximately $195 million, while noting that abandoned animation, replacement recording, and the longer schedule were likely to increase the final cost.

Restarting production

Brow, Grant, and Mercer began from the Gold–Goodwin story rather than discarding it, retaining Director Zero's escape, the generated operatives, several stronghold locations, the Meridian Crossroads settlement, the concept of records replacing public memory, and the underlying conflict between emergency authority and civilian consent. Their replacement outline moved Derp into the central conflict by making his contradictory personnel history the only identity that the Protocol could not reproduce consistently, while Cipher's effort to protect the generated operatives and Flint's unresolved relationship with K-0 became parallel consequences rather than separate subplots. The new writers removed an earlier storyline in which Zero created a conventional evil duplicate of Derp, believing that a physical replacement would reduce the character's unusual history to another impostor plot; instead, the revised film treats Derp as strategically valuable because his mistakes, unofficial repairs, incorrect identification numbers, and conflicting accounts of his recruitment have produced a record too inconsistent for a system built around institutional certainty. Brow, Grant, and Mercer completed the new outline in July and the replacement screenplay on August 22, after which the principal cast participated in a full table read and the editorial department created a continuity assembly from reusable Gold material. Voice recording resumed on September 8, animation restarted on October 6, and the teaser poster launched the replacement production's marketing campaign in November. By March 2036, Mob Studios said the revised story structure was locked, principal dialogue had been completed, and no further large-scale rewrite was planned; however, Brow continued making small editorial changes as completed animation revealed opportunities to shorten exposition, strengthen Derp and Needle's physical-comedy sequences, and preserve more of Cipher and Flint's quieter material from the miniseries. The studio's March update described the film as being in final animation and post-production, with several stronghold-network sequences requiring additional rendering because they change environmental signage, architecture, character memories, and crowd behavior simultaneously.

Writing

Brow, Grant, and Mercer structured the revised screenplay around Derp's refusal to accept the distinction between an "official" repair and one that actually keeps people safe. The film opens with him maintaining an emergency route that the Bureau considers technically invalid, only for the Stronghold Protocol to classify the surrounding settlement according to obsolete records and transform its market, roads, occupations, and public history into an administrative facility. Grant said the replacement screenplay continues Stronghold without repeating its mystery: the generated agents are already recognized as people, and the feature's conflict concerns whether Director Zero can force those people—and every settlement connected to the Bureau—to become the versions described by institutional records. Cipher therefore spends the film defending identities created by a system she once helped design, while Flint must work with K-0 without pretending to remember the partnership K-0 sincerely experienced. Mercer developed the rules governing replacement so that the Protocol cannot simply erase a person instantaneously; it first alters signs, maps, routes, ownership records, employment assignments, and the reactions of nearby residents until the targeted identity becomes socially and physically difficult to preserve. The writers also expanded Obsidian's responsibility without returning him to power, establishing that his knowledge can help identify the network's command structure but cannot make him the moral authority over the organization he previously controlled. Sable's support for Zero was rewritten as a deliberate political position rather than mind control: because her own history was generated, she believes a world governed by consistent records offers people like her greater security than one that can deny their past whenever those records become inconvenient. Brow described the resulting screenplay as a comedy driven by real institutional damage, in which Derp remains funny because he approaches frightening systems with the same literal, improvised logic he applies to broken machinery, not because the consequences around him are treated as inconsequential.

The writers retained the broad endpoint of the Gold–Goodwin story—Derp, Cipher, and Flint entering the original command stronghold—but changed the objective from destroying the entire network to separating Director Zero's emergency authority from the independent identities generated inside it. Brow said a conclusion based only on exploding the strongholds would contradict Stronghold by treating the newly created operatives as disposable components once they became inconvenient, while a solution based entirely on Cipher rewriting the Index would again remove Derp from his own film. The revised climax therefore requires Derp to move through several versions of the same facility while the Protocol repeatedly assigns him different roles, names, loyalties, and histories, and his refusal to perform any of them prevents Zero from stabilizing the network long enough for Cipher to isolate its command structure. Flint and K-0 lead the physical defense of the generated agents, Needle keeps Derp's damaged portable portal functioning despite every official system rejecting it, and Sable is given an opportunity to choose whether her legitimacy depends on Zero remaining in control. The screenplay resolves the principal conflict with Director Zero and the Stronghold Protocol before introducing the corrupted player records that connect to Minecraft: The Man Who Wasn't There, because Brow did not want the feature to function solely as an extended bridge between the miniseries and the later Chapter Two mystery.

Pre-production

Casting

Menville, Slate, and Boyega were attached when the film was announced in March 2033, with Harrison, Esposito, and Quan confirmed later that year and Wright, Malek, Wilson, and Yeun joining after their characters were developed for Stronghold. Mob Studios retained the full announced principal cast during the 2035 restructuring, believing that the assembly's problems arose from story emphasis rather than performance, and Brow consulted Menville, Slate, Boyega, and Grant before approving the replacement outline. Menville re-recorded most of Derp's material because the revised version placed the character inside the central conflict and changed his emotional progression from seeking validation as an agent to deciding what kind of authority he is willing to exercise. Slate retained selected Cipher scenes from the original production but recorded substantial new material involving the generated agents and the public consequences of the Protocol, while Boyega's revised performance places greater emphasis on Flint's discomfort with K-0 remembering a partnership that he cannot personally verify. Wright returns as Director Zero after voicing the character in Stronghold, but Brow asked him to use a more singular performance because Zero is attempting to present itself as one stable person rather than an institution assembled from several directors. Harrison, Malek, Wilson, Yeun, Esposito, and Quan also recorded expanded roles, with Needle becoming Derp's principal operational partner, K-0 and Oriole representing generated agents who reject Zero for different reasons, and Sable remaining a committed supporter of the Protocol. Rockwell, Aghdashloo, and Mbatha-Raw were initially reported to be in negotiations in late 2034 and were formally confirmed after the restructuring, reprising the Broker, Councillor Mara Vey, and Dr. Ilya Voss. Yeoh, Edebiri, and Comer recorded supporting appearances as Sola, Nia Vale, and Lyra during the fall 2035 sessions, connecting the Bureau conflict to settlements, maps, and reconstructed identities outside the organization.

Design

Production designer Mara Venn began visual development in 2034 by expanding the restrained corridors and archive spaces of Stronghold into a network capable of altering occupied settlements, public infrastructure, transportation routes, and the memories associated with them. The original production designed nine principal strongholds, but Brow's version retained five and combined the functions of the others so that each surviving facility represented a distinct form of institutional control: identity, transport, emergency authority, evidence, or settlement planning. Meridian Crossroads was conceived as a functioning market that gradually adopts the visual grammar of the Obsidian Bureau, with roads becoming numbered routes, homes receiving office designations, public noticeboards turning into personnel files, and villagers' clothing changing to match occupations assigned by the Protocol even though the underlying buildings remain recognizable. Director Zero's physical form was redesigned after the pause; whereas the miniseries presented the character as a composite of several director uniforms, the film gives Zero a modular body whose armor, insignia, and proportions change according to which stronghold is supplying its authority. Derp's field equipment includes an incorrectly assembled portable portal, a repair bag filled with incompatible Bureau tools, and an identification badge that continuously changes his operative number, while Needle uses transparent overlays that reveal earlier versions of altered maps, signs, ownership records, and personnel assignments. The visual-effects department developed a "record replacement" system in which environmental and behavioral changes occur in connected stages, allowing a building to remain physically identical while its signs, routes, legal purpose, and the reactions of nearby characters are rewritten. Venn said the replacement system was designed to remain visually readable during comedy and action, so Derp might continue repairing a market stall while the surrounding settlement gradually insists that the same structure has always been an interrogation desk.

Voice recording

Principal voice recording for the original production began on August 19, 2034, with Menville, Slate, Boyega, Harrison, Esposito, and Quan completing the first ensemble sessions before Wright, Malek, Wilson, and Yeun recorded material developed in coordination with Stronghold. Gold encouraged improvisation during Derp and Needle's repair sequences, while Cipher and Flint's procedural scenes were performed more closely to Goodwin's screenplay; some of that work survived because the revised film preserved individual objectives, jokes, or exchanges even when their surrounding sequences changed. Recording was suspended with production in April 2035, after which Ford and Lane assembled every usable performance so the replacement writers could determine whether it remained compatible with the new story. Recording resumed on September 8 under Brow, who used larger ensemble sessions more extensively and placed Menville, Slate, Boyega, Harrison, Malek, and Yeun together for several Bureau sequences to recover the overlapping rhythm of the first film without sacrificing the more controlled tone established by the miniseries. Menville re-recorded most of Derp's dialogue, Slate and Boyega retained selected exchanges whose dramatic purpose survived, and Wright recorded Director Zero separately in October using fewer layered vocal tracks than in Stronghold. The principal fall period concluded on November 7, followed by additional sessions in January and February 2036 for replacement dialogue, supporting characters, altered action timing, and scenes reshaped during animation. Mob Studios announced on February 23 that principal voice production had been completed, although minor automated dialogue replacement could continue through the final sound mix. Brow said the completed recordings preserved more material from Gold's production than viewers might assume, but that almost every retained line now appears in a different structural context or is motivated by a different decision.

Animation

Principal animation began in December 2034, and by the production pause several environments, action tests, technical demonstrations, and portions of the original opening had entered lighting even though most character animation remained incomplete. During the pause, Mob Studios Animation catalogued every asset and shot as reusable, revisable, reference-only, or abandoned, with Cross explaining that environments, rigs, stronghold mechanisms, and technical systems survived more frequently than character scenes because the replacement screenplay changed motivations, timing, sequence order, and the characters present in each location. Animation restarted on October 6 with a rebuilt opening in which Derp repairs an emergency route while the surrounding settlement gradually transforms into a Bureau facility, followed by work on a minecart pursuit where signs and tracks continuously redirect the characters toward identities assigned by Zero. The revised film uses a more physically expressive version of Derp than Stronghold, retaining the miniseries' controlled movement for Cipher, Flint, and Director Zero so that Derp appears visually incompatible with the strongholds' rigid timing and geometry. Generated agents begin the film with complete textures because the miniseries established their independence, while new identities created by Zero contain visual gaps corresponding to information absent from their files; those gaps gradually fill as the characters make choices not predicted by the Protocol. The most technically demanding sequences connect several strongholds during the climax and require the replacement system to alter signs, architecture, portal destinations, crowd behavior, clothing, maps, and character recognition within the same shots. Principal character animation was substantially completed in February 2036, but revisions and replacement shots continued through March as Brow and the editors refined the climax and preserved several quieter performances from the story reels. Mob Studios' March production update said final lighting, simulation, rendering, compositing, and effects were proceeding simultaneously across the internal unit and partner facilities, with the July delay allowing the studio to finish the network-collapse material at its intended scale rather than simplify or remove it.

Editing and post-production

Celia Ford and Matthew Lane are editing the film, with Ford returning from Agent Derp and Lane joining after working on Stronghold. The original assembly reportedly ran approximately 154 minutes and combined temporary animation, storyboards, unfinished voice work, and repeated explanatory sequences; Brow said the length itself was less concerning than the lack of escalation through Derp's decisions. Ford and Lane first created a continuity assembly from the surviving Gold material, allowing the replacement writers to preserve performances, visual ideas, environmental work, and individual jokes without retaining the original sequence structure, and continued cutting alongside the renewed recording and animation so that Brow could evaluate completed scenes rather than waiting for a conventional late-stage assembly. By March 2036, the film had entered a stable feature-length cut, though Mob Studios had not announced the runtime. The editors were concentrating on the transition between the Meridian Crossroads material and the larger stronghold network, reducing repeated explanations of the Black Index, and ensuring that Cipher, Flint, K-0, and Sable retained complete emotional progressions around Derp's more overtly comic storyline. Sound editing and the final mix began in February, while color, lighting, rendering, and premium-format mastering continued through the spring. On March 12, Cross announced that the release would move from June 19 to July 10, explaining that the three-week extension protected the final effects, sound mix, and IMAX and 3D versions after the studio concluded that the revised climax could not be completed to the intended standard by the earlier delivery date. She denied that the film had returned to active rewriting or that Brow's cut had encountered another internal rejection, describing the delay as the final consequence of rebuilding a production that had already lost several months in 2035. The picture was locked in May, final rendering and colour grading concluded in early June, and Mob Studios announced completion of production on June 20. The final film runs for 132 minutes, including credits.

Music

Weston Doyle and Maya Chen are composing the score. Doyle created the Obsidian Bureau theme for Agent Derp, while Chen composed the episodic music for Stronghold.

The score combines the first film's comedic brass, hand percussion, and improvised repair rhythms with the miniseries' prepared piano, redstone clicks, low strings, and Black Index motif. Doyle said the film's musical conflict concerns a theme that repeatedly attempts to correct Derp into the expected rhythm and fails, while Director Zero's material reorganizes the fragmented institutional theme from Stronghold into a fixed march. Cipher and Flint retain incomplete musical phrases representing missing information, and the generated agents receive individual variations rather than sharing one Black Index identity.

Doyle and Chen began composing to the revised storyboards in September 2035 and started recording in February 2036 with orchestra, prepared piano, processed brass, tuned redstone mechanisms, minecart percussion, and mechanical sounds taken from rebuilt Bureau props. Recording concluded in April, and Doyle and Chen completed the final score mix in May. Mob Studios Music plans to release the soundtrack album on July 10.

Marketing

The title was announced with the original Chapter Two slate on March 28, 2033. The first logo placed the Obsidian Bureau eye inside an End portal frame whose blocks displayed different agent identification numbers.

A first-look image released on September 19, 2034, depicted Derp, Cipher, and Flint inside a stronghold corridor lined with personnel photographs. Mob Studios did not release footage from the original Gold production.

The finale of Stronghold ended with the mission designation "Stronghold Protocol" and the original August 15, 2035, release date. Disney+ replaced the date card with "Coming to theaters" after production was paused.

Following the June restructuring, Mob Studios withdrew the original promotional calendar, removed the first-look image from the project's principal promotional pages, and said marketing would resume only after the revised screenplay and production schedule were approved.

The film's first teaser poster was released on November 14, 2035. It depicts Derp standing beneath an incomplete stronghold doorway while rows of Bureau identification photographs change to display his face. The Bureau eye above the doorway is divided into the identification numbers D-0 and 0. Its tagline reads "NO RECORD. NO REPLACEMENT."

Commentators noted that the poster emphasizes Derp rather than Director Zero or the wider ensemble and interpreted it as a public confirmation that Brow's version would center the character more directly. The design also removes the original End-portal title frame and uses a damaged version of the Obsidian Bureau symbol introduced in Stronghold.

Mob Studios released a short motion version of the poster in which Derp's identification photograph changes through several incorrect names before returning to D-0. No footage from the film was included.

The February 13, 2036, Disney+ special Mushroom Island included an updated theatrical card for the film but retained the June 19 date because the March postponement had not yet been announced. Following the delay, Disney+ replaced the card with July 10.

In March, Brow said the teaser poster remained the only released campaign material created from the replacement production and that Mob Studios had moved the first trailer from March to April so its effects shots could reflect the completed film rather than temporary animation.

The theatrical release poster was unveiled on May 14, 2036. It presents Derp, Cipher, and Flint in the foreground as shifting Bureau records and distorted settlement maps break apart around them, while Director Zero appears above the stronghold network and Agent Sable leads generated operatives across the lower half of the composition. The title treatment uses the repaired Obsidian Bureau symbol introduced in Brow's version rather than the broken emblem from the teaser campaign.

Trade commentators described the poster as broader and more recognizably theatrical than the teaser image, noting its emphasis on the ensemble, the physical scale of the stronghold network, and the tension between improvisation and institutional control that defines the revised film. Mob Studios said the poster marked the beginning of the main theatrical campaign and would be followed by trailers, character posters, and premium-format materials closer to release.

The final trailer was released on June 11. It focused on Director Zero's attempt to convert Meridian Crossroads into a Bureau command settlement, Cipher's defence of the generated agents, and Derp's inability to maintain a consistent identification number. It was accompanied by individual posters for Derp, Cipher, Flint, Director Zero, Needle, K-0, and Sable.

Mob Studios held fan screenings of the first twenty minutes in selected premium-format cinemas on June 20. The footage included the opening settlement-replacement sequence and the first confrontation between Derp and Director Zero, but did not reveal the film's later stronghold-network material.

Release

Theatrical

Agent Derp: Stronghold Protocol had its world premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on June 28, 2036. Brow, Cross, Gold, Grant, Mercer, Doyle, Chen, and members of the principal cast attended. The premiere used the film's final IMAX version and was followed by a reception incorporating sets and interactive identification displays based on Meridian Crossroads and the Black Index.

The film was released theatrically in the United States on July 10, 2036. It was previously scheduled for August 15, 2035, and June 19, 2036.

International releases began on July 8. The film was released in standard, 3D, IMAX, Dolby Cinema, and other premium large-format formats. The Motion Picture Association rated it PG for animated action, peril, thematic material, and some rude humour. Its runtime is 132 minutes.

The film opened approximately five months after Mushroom Island and three months before Minecraft: The Man Who Wasn't There.

Reception

Box office

As of July 10, 2036, Agent Derp: Stronghold Protocol had grossed $18.7 million in the United States and Canada and $46.3 million in other territories, for an early worldwide total of $65.0 million.

In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside two smaller wide releases and was projected to gross between $120 million and $135 million from 4,329 theatres during its opening weekend. It earned $18.7 million from Thursday-night previews, the second-highest preview total for an Agent Derp film and the fourth-highest for the Minecraft Universe.

The film began its international rollout on July 8 and earned $46.3 million from 54 markets through July 9. Its largest early markets included the United Kingdom, Mexico, Australia, Germany, France, South Korea, Brazil, and Spain. It was projected to produce a worldwide opening of between $285 million and $320 million.

Critical response

The review embargo for Agent Derp: Stronghold Protocol lifted on June 29, 2036. The film received positive reviews, with several critics describing it as a successful recovery from its widely reported production overhaul.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 89% of 247 critics' reviews were positive, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The website's consensus stated that the film "restores Derp to the centre of his own adventure, using Alex Brow's assured direction, inventive animation, and Scott Menville's committed performance to turn a troubled production into a surprisingly coherent sequel".

Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 77 out of 100 based on 55 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews".

Critics praised Brow's restructuring of the story around Derp, the relationship between Derp and Cipher, the continuation of the generated-agent storyline from Stronghold, and the decision to treat Director Zero's record-replacement system as both a visual threat and a source of character-based comedy. Menville and Slate received the strongest performance notices, while Boyega, Wright, Harrison, Malek, Wilson, and Yeun were also praised. Reviewers highlighted the opening transformation of Meridian Crossroads, the minecart pursuit through changing routes, the shifting command stronghold, Doyle and Chen's score, and the film's use of signs, maps, clothing, and crowd behaviour to depict institutional replacement.

Elise Grant of Pixel & Picture called the film "the rare studio rescue that feels rebuilt rather than merely repaired", praising Brow for preserving the moral consequences of Stronghold while allowing Derp's improvised logic to drive the climax.

Samir Cole of Blockframe praised Menville, Slate, Wright, and the visual effects, writing that the film transforms "a character who survives by misunderstanding systems into the only person capable of resisting one that understands everyone too completely". He criticised the amount of Chapter Two terminology introduced during the middle portion.

Marissa Vale of CraftWire considered the first and final acts among the strongest material in the Agent Derp storyline but found the second act overextended and believed several supporting characters, particularly D-27, Obsidian, and Dr. Voss, were underused.

Several reviewers stated that the film could be followed without watching Stronghold, although knowledge of the miniseries strengthened the material involving K-0, Sable, Oriole, and Cipher. Other critics believed the screenplay still devoted too much time to explaining the Black Index and generated identities for theatrical audiences.

Critics generally agreed that the released version did not resemble a conventional patchwork production despite its retained material, replacement screenplay, and restarted animation. Brow's direction and Ford and Lane's editing were credited with maintaining a consistent tone between physical comedy, espionage, and the identity conflict.

Audience response

Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, compared with the first film's "A−". PostTrak reported a 92% positive score, with 79% of respondents saying they would definitely recommend it.

Menville's performance, Derp's rejection of the stable Agent D-0 history, the Meridian Crossroads transformation, the minecart pursuit, Sable's decision to oppose Director Zero, and the final command-stronghold sequence received particularly strong audience reactions. The mid-credits reference to Minecraft: The Man Who Wasn't There was also widely discussed following opening-night screenings.

Future

The film continues the storyline of Stronghold and is followed by Minecraft: The Man Who Wasn't There, scheduled for October 16, 2036. Corrupted player records found throughout the stronghold network contribute to that film's investigation, but Brow said Stronghold Protocol would resolve its principal conflict with Director Zero rather than end solely as setup.

Derp and Needle appeared in Mushroom Island, released on Disney+ on February 13, 2036. The special is set during the gap between Stronghold and the film and follows evidence recovered from a dormant stronghold.

Menville, Slate, Boyega, Harrison, Wright, Malek, Wilson, Yeun, Esposito, and Quan are expected to remain available for later Chapter Two projects. Members of the Obsidian Bureau ensemble are expected to appear in Minecraft: World Unmade.