Summary
Nintendo, Illumination, and Universal rocked the international box office in 2023 when they releasedThe Super Mario Bros. Movieinto the wild. Since that film was successful beyond their wildest dreams, Nintendo is moving forward with numerous adaptations of their popular games and now we have an idea of which one might be coming down the pike in the near future.
Nintendohad been famously reluctant to let Hollywood touch their franchises afterthe debacle that was 1993’sSuper Mario Bros. A critical disaster that lost a whole bunch of money, the film crashed and burned so hard that the Big N wouldn’t let any Tinseltown studio touch a Nintendo property for nearly thirty years. Japanese animation studios got to bring titles likePokémonandAnimal Crossingto life, but Hollywood was shut off for a good long while. Then Nintendo partnered with Universal to bring Super Nintendo World to various Universal Studios theme parks around the world and the door was seemingly opened for more partnerships down the line. Nintendo gaming mastermind Shigeru Miyamoto would eventually work with Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri to create an all-newSuper Mario Bros.adaptation and the rest was history. At the moment, a 2026 sequel toThe Super Mario Bros. Movieis currently in production and a live-action adaptation ofThe Legend of Zeldais also in the works withKingdom of the Planet of the Apes' Wes Ball signed on as director.
The rumor mill has been churning aboutaDonkey Kongadaptationfor a while now, with Seth Rogen—who voiced Donkey Kong inThe Super Mario Bros. Movie—stating his desire to return for a spin-off film back in 2023.Now, Nintendo Studios LLC and Universal Pictures have officially registered for the copyright for an “Unititled Donkey Kong Project” motion picture.Given that a brand new Donkey Kong game is set to release for Nintendo Switch 2 later this week, it makes sense that they’d get this copyright registered if a big announcement is on the way. Or, they could simply be covering their bases just in case. Anything is possible in Hollywood.
Nintendo And Universal Might Be Working On ADonkey KongFilm Adaptation
Given that the Donkey Kong character has already been established with general audiences thanks toTheSuper Mario Bros. Movie, it makes sense that Nintendo and Universal would at least kick the tires on aDonkey Kongfilm.DK is a flagship character for Nintendo, debuting way back in 1981 and has appeared in dozens of video games over the years. Platforming classics likeDonkey Kong CountryandDonkey Kong 64as well as appearances in theMario KartandSuper Smash Bros.franchises have kept Donkey Kong’s popularity high over the decades.
It’s hard to guess what aDonkey Kongfilm would look like at this stage, but it would almost assuredly be an animated film. Could you even imagine a live-actionDonkey Kongmovie? What would that even look like? No, the safe money is on a spin-off of 2023’sThe Super Mario Bros. MoviefeaturingSeth Rogen returning as DK. No matter which way Nintendo and Universal go with this, aDonkey Kongflick is still years down the line.
For now, we’ll just have to wait for next year’s sequel toThe Super Mario Bros. Moviethat is sure to makeNintendoa lot more money.
