Ninja Reveals His Biggest Goal Yet

Tyler "Ninja" Blevins has spent years building a streaming empire from the ground up. Along with his wife and manager, Jessica Blevins, Ninja has managed to cultivate a massive following and make an impact in mainstream culture, as well. With several things in his professional life up in the air at the moment, it seems that Ninja has finally set his sights on a new arena: Hollywood.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter's Natalie Jarvey, Ninja described his long journey to the big screen and what he plans to do next. According to Ninja, the scope of what he's hoping to do is rather broad. As he told Jarvey during the interview, he's considering "literally anything and everything Hollywood ... Movies, voice acting, cartoons."

In fact, it seems that Ninja has been trying to break into the mainstream entertainment industry for a little while now. Just last year, he appeared as a contestant on the second season of The Masked Singer. Though Ninja was eliminated during the first episode of the season, his appearance as a bizarre ice cream cone-slash-nightmare creature singing "Old Town Road" was certainly a memorable moment in prime-time television. He also clearly had a blast doing it, so it makes sense that he would be looking for other such gigs.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ninja also filmed some kind of cameo for the Jack Black film Jumanji: The Next Level, but it was unfortunately cut from the final version. There doesn't seem to be any information on what that scene might have entailed, but maybe it will surface on a future release of the film.

Now, Ninja is set to appear in a cameo role in the upcoming Ryan Reynolds video game satire Free Guy. The movie is about an NPC who realizes he's in a fictional world, so naturally the movie is packed with appearances from streamers and YouTubers, including Ninja, Jacksepticeye, and Pokimane. Ninja apparently received some positive responses from the crew of Free Guy for his performance, which apparently strengthened his resolve to do more.

Ninja did make it clear in his interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he's not planning to take just any old job. As Ninja explained, "I have always been afraid of becoming a sellout ... I'm never going to work with someone I don't want to work with and I'm never going to endorse something that I don't like."

According to Ninja, he is finding much more time to pursue projects outside of the streaming world since Microsoft announced the closure of its Mixer platform. In fact, there was a brief period of time when Ninja considered leaving streaming behind entirely. Ninja's viewership numbers had declined after signing to Mixer, so it was apparently something of a relief when the platform was shuttered, leaving Ninja a free agent. While Ninja has dabbled with streaming on YouTube, he has yet to sign any contracts that would tie him down to one spot.

Apparently, Ninja is more interested in the realm of voice work than appearing directly on screen. When asked if he was interested in pursuing some kind of hosting gig, he indicated that he enjoyed being behind a microphone more than being in front of a camera. As Ninja explained to Jarvey, he particularly loves to do impressions, with one of them being of Jim Carrey playing The Grinch. He declined to do the impression during the interview, but he did point out that there is a TikTok video of him doing the voice.

In fact, Ninja had been using TikTok for a while to seemingly get that acting bug out of his system. Ninja notably announced last month, however, that he was permanently leaving TikTok over privacy concerns. While that platform may no longer be his go-to, it seems like he's already planning new ways of using his vocal talents. That may be for the best, anyway, considering Ninja was frequently roasted for his TikTok output. Most notably, Dr Disrespect blasted Ninja for having "the worst TikToks."

Speaking of Dr Disrespect, Ninja wouldn't be the first streamer to attempt to parlay their stardom into a film or television career. Last year, Dr Disrespect signed a TV deal to develop a show based around his online persona. It's unclear if the Doc's ban from Twitch will have an impact on that development deal, however.

With Free Guy on the way and his future streaming plans unclear, it seems like Ninja may have the free time (and the existing fan base) to make his Hollywood dreams come true. Only time will tell.

Luckily, it appears as though fans won't ever have to worry about Ninja leaving video games behind. As he told The Hollywood Reporter, "I'll be gaming my entire life."