Nintendo Fever: Which games will get the Super Mario Bros. Movie treatment next?
With The Super Mario Bros. Movie unleashed in theaters, we look at 9 other beloved Nintendo franchises and see how they'd fare on the screen
Film Features Nintendo
This week, after a year-plus of dedicated hype, Nintendo and Illumination are unleashing The Super Mario Bros. Movie into theaters—the first serious step (alongside the recent opening of Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios, earlier this year) in what’s likely to be a major media push by the beloved video game brand. And while the critical response to the Mario movie has been muted, trending “rotten,” that doesn’t seem to have done much to quiet the enthusiasm of movie-goers desperate to hear Chris Pratt declare, once and for all, that it’s-a-him: The film is currently projected at a $125 million debut, the biggest of 2023 to date.
Which suggests that, after decades of attempts—and a few fascinating failures—the world might finally be ready for Nintendo to take one of the planet’s most beloved collections of intellectual property and start throwing it at the American movie market like they’re barrels in the hands of an angry Kong. Or, to put it another way: You don’t think Hollywood is going to let Nintendo pass up all the potential money of a Zelda movie, do you?
Hence this survey of the Nintendo corpus as a whole, trying to figure out which of the company’s beloved properties are most likely for a cinematic reinvention, now that everybody’s favorite plumber has cleared the way. For your reading convenience/appropriate calibration of hopes, we’ve arranged these picks in order of certainty, ranging from “Will almost certainly happen” to “Not in a million years (but it’d be damn cool if they did).” (Oh, and we’re leaving out Pokémon, the only Nintendo brand that’s ever even come close to being a success at the international box office; take it as read that we’ll be getting a few more of those movies in Mario’s fireball-hurling wake.)
113 Comments
…I’d like……but it’d never happen, since Americans don’t know what it is.
I want a Punch Out origin story on Vodka Drunkenski and his transformation into Soda Popinski.
Jason Segal as Vodka. Directed by the Duplass Brothers.
Punch-Out would make a great movie. Especially since a lot of the things that made it stand out would easily adapt to a movie.A good fight choreographer could work in the different boxers signature moves, and Mac’s star punch wouldn’t have to be some magical thing…but you could still recreate it in the final bout by having him land it in slow mo amongst a bunch of camera flashes.
Mickey Rourke wins 17 oscars for his portrayal of a boxer who bravely overcomes alcoholism while fleeing Soviet oppression.
Zelda is a terrible choice for adaptation. Video game adaptations work best when there’s either minimal plot (e.g. Mario) so they can make it up as they go, or when gameplay only exists in service of the plot (e.g. The Last Of Us). Zelda has enough of a plot that they would need to stick with it in an adaptation. But once you remove the need to go to eight different dungeons before fighting Ganondorf, it’s not enough for a full movie. Plus, the Zelda series is too serious for a light-hearted adaptation, and not serious enough for something deeper.Really, the correct answer here is: Paperboy, directed by David Lynch.
“But once you remove the need to go to eight different dungeons before fighting Ganondorf, it’s not enough for a full movie.”You sound like someone who hasn’t played Breath of the Wild 🙂 I agree that Zelda is a bad choice for adaptation, but for different reasons. Link is largely a silent protagonist, and making him the main character in a movie is sure to result in a portrayal that clashes with the individual interpretations all of us longtime fans have of him.
….and?
Exactly this. When you play the game, going through the legend becomes ‘your’ legend because of the interpretation of Link, the hero. What do you have Link become in a movie?
I don’t think folks are going to be put off by Link talking. He talks in other Zelda media besides the games, like the manga series.
I’m sure the movies would be successful. I personally have no interest in seeing a Zelda movie or reading manga, but to each their own. I’m generally not a fan of video game adaptations in general, as to me the appeal lies in them being interactive.
It’d be fine if Link talked. Maybe he could have a catchphrase like “Well excuuuuuuuse me, princess!” or something. People would eat it up.
Was that a catchphrase of his from the cartoon on the Mario Bros show from back in the day? I watched it as a kid, but not since, so I don’t have much memory of it. Everything I’ve seen that has mentioned it talks about how awful it was, and I believe it.
I feel like you’re forgetting characters like Beedle and Tingle, and little cutesy Koroks. It’s not the most serious thing I’ve ever seen.Lynch already made Paperboy with Blue Velvet.
I dunno, I’d say Breath of the Wild (the first Zelda game with proper voiced cutscenes) had enough plot for a movie, especially if you add in the backstory about the Calamity War.
I could envision this as a GoT-style series with the first season or two covering Calamity Ganon first rising and wreaking havoc, with a cliffhanger of Link failing and being put in the Resurrection Shrine. As Link’s vision fades/screen cuts to black, the credits roll, then we get a post-credit of Zelda’s voice calling to Link as he slightly opens his eyes (although it would be a bit more like House of the Dragon with the time jump)
Counterpoint: there’s this fan edit I’d like to will into existence.Princess Mononoke is practically a Zelda movie on its own. A feature-length Zelda animated by (or even just in the style of) Studio Ghibli? Come on, universe, make it happen.
Zelda has enough of a plot that they would need to stick with it in an adaptation.
I don’t like the idea because I don’t want to hear Link talk (BotW’s voice acting was bad enough as-is) but I completely disagree with this, the lore is constantly being added to and rarely drawn from. The timeline barely matters and there are new versions of the characters and enemies and regions every game. Zelda would probably be one of the easiest Nintendo to adapt from a “respecting the lore” perspective.
I could see something like Wind Waker being a good pick for a Mandalorian-type episodic western-ish series. Each episode a new island or side quest towards Ganon.
Arguably, puzzle-y dungeon-crawling was a film trope before it was a game trope, thanks to action-adventure flicks like Indiana Jones.Of course, no-one seems to have cracked the code on Indiana Jones knock-offs either, so I guess scepticism would be warranted regardless…
I think a Ghibli Zelda could work, go for a blend of Mononoke and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
I just disagree with the idea that there is some formula for creating good video game movies or TV shows. Castlevania is a series that you could compare Zelda to and it had a pretty great animated show on Netflix. It’s pretty easy to imagine a good Zelda movie IMO.
Was Lee Daniels’ The Paperboy not a licensed adaptation?
Link doesn’t talk at all, that’s probably worth considering in this thought experiment/listicle
I assume Chris Pratt will play the lead in all these projects too. I bet he has a great Samus voice.
“Metroid Prime, here I come”
Nah, if they adapted Metroid the same people complaining about Pratt’s voice would go the “this actor isn’t sexy/buff/hot enough to be Samus…” thing like we saw with Gadot, Larson, etc.
nah, scarlett johanson….as ridley.
More so than “Fire Emblem follows Zelda”, which ever of Zelda or Metroid happens first will determine whether the other one gets made. The largely silent protagonist, the exploration to find power ups, going back to already explored areas to use new powers to access new sections, the outfit changes to access different environments… once you remove the genre trappings, the games are more alike than they seem, especially in terms of how you would film them.
Zelda is the most likely one to come first, and it’s basically begging to be turned into a “small group adventure” story – IE “Link and a growing group of companions go off to save Hyrule”. If it does, then the Metroid adaptation might try that, but I actually think they’d probably do the Mandalorian route with Samus having to protect someone most of the movie.
If Metroid comes first, I still think they’d do the “small group adventure” with Zelda.
I don’t disagree with your thoughts. I HATE the idea of small-group Zelda adventure though. My only experience with actual working partners for Link are Epona and Navi. So, hey, listen… maybe a Witcher (or Mandalorian) like show where Link has a group of associates but works with a different one each episode. Mando Aran I can get behind, although there’s a disconnect in my head. I haven’t played the Switch games for either property, but IIRC for the more classic games, Link had plenty of escort side quests, while Samus had virtually none.
Samus has been speaking since Super Metroid (the game’s intro was narrated in the first person) so I don’t think Nintendo would make her silent. On the other hand, it would be a really cool flex if they made an entire Zelda movie where Link doesn’t speak. The whole movie could be pitched toward having minimal dialogue and being driven by action and visuals (in a similar style to Samurai Jack) but other characters would still say stuff when needed. Link, though, never says a word. The challenge would be in finding an actor who can project the idea that he never NEEDS to say a word.
Have a running gag where whenever Link’s about to speak, someone interrupts him or it cuts to the next scene. End with him opening his mouth to say something just as it cuts to credits.
Eh. I don’t mind a Link who talks. Link has never been a cool badass. He’s typically been an average guy who finds himself drawn in to a bad situation and rises to meet the moment.Even in BotW he had silly moments and fun interactions, but that didn’t take away from the overall grim setting and sad backstory.
Take the team who did D&D and give them Zelda. They’ve shown an ability to adapt a fantasy game in a way that stays true to the world without getting bogged down in fanwank.And the result was an appealing film for both general audiences and fans of the franchise.
Pilot WingsSuper Monkey BallDiddy Kong Racing
GoldenEye 007All of the above would make great movies.
I really don’t see how you could turn the last one into a *good* movie.
A movie? About James Bond? Ridiculous.
Man, Super Monkey Ball takes me back. There was something so unsettling about watching those monkeys fall into an abyss over and over again on the harder levels.
watching those monkeys fall into an abyss over and over again And that’s why the movie version will be called…Plummet of the Apes.*Balloons fall from the ceiling as I am handed a check for $800 million.*
I’ve heard of a movie tie-in game. But a game tie-in movie tie-in game? ludicrous.
I assume you didn’t mention the obvious Donkey Kong Country movie because they somehow hinted at doing that in the Mario film.
Zelda would be great as an adaption. Do the below, and you got tons of options – you could aim for something at a younger audience. You could go full Lord of the Rings high fantasy epic. You could aim for something more anime-ish in tone and picture, etc.
1. Compress the number of dungeons so that you can link them to Link and other characters’ character arcs and growth2. Make sure Link has at least one and preferably two companions on his journey to talk to (and so you can get the Action-Adventure Triad of Characters – see Mummy 1999).
Metroid, meanwhile, would be the hardest to adapt because Samus is so defined by being a solitary character. It’s the type of thing that could make a good short film mood piece, but not a feature-length film unless she’s basically a secondary character in it.
Star Fox would be a hard movie but an easy breeze as an animated TV show. You’d really have to compress a ton to get it to fit into a 90-120 minute family film.
Fire Emblem would definitely be a slam dunk for adaptation if marketed right. “What if Game of Thrones, but more high fantasy elements and a PG-13 rating?”.
I didn’t think of this when writing this comment, but the obvious route for a Metroid movie would be to take a page from The Mandalorian and make the first one about Samus having to protect someone for most of the movie.
The Baby
You can do something like The Cube.Samus trapped in a labyrinthic Metroid base trying to flee and having to fight monsters while encountering other trapped people to help and protect.Make it claustrophobic enough and you have a movie.You can even keep the “reveal” at the end with a good suit design and a robotic voice for interaction with people that think their saviour is the classic male hero and then in the end… surprise!! :DCheers
In Super Metroid, Samus has a Metroid egg hatch in front of her, and the larva immediately imprints on her – maybe that’s the ticket?
She’d need other people to talk to, but otherwise yeah that could work.
I could easily see Zelda becoming a movie.
It’d be easy to turn it into a “small group adventure” movie, with Link joining an ever-growing cast of companions on an adventure to save Hyrule. Some of the games have even done it already – that’s basically what happens in Twilight Princess, albeit just with Link and Midna as the constant companions.
I can see Zelda working well as something like the Witcher show, where Link’s paired with one or two characters at a time. Or something like Berserk’s early arcs, where the fairy sidekick is a comic foil to the taciturn lead.
Speaking of Berserk… This is totally off topic since that isn’t a Nintendo property but I could easily spin a single season show out of that game.Let’s see – a single person crash lands on a planet and enters a labyrinth. Every room is a new adventure that he must solve to move on to the next room (Think Infinity Train) but he has a countdown since there are robots that want to kill him and if he spends too much time an evil entity named Otto comes to collect him (Think Rover form The Prisoner). He must reach the middle of the maze to find out the secret to the robots and Otta.
The Calamity that befell Hyrule in Breath of the Wild is basically this. Hyrule Warriors touched on it too.A random soldier (Link) slowly rises up the ranks to become Zelda’s protecetor and forms a bond with the four Champions.Of course, in BotW they failed…but that doesn’t have to be the case. Meld the two stories so that as he allies with the Champions they activate the titans and stop Calamity Ganon.
This is going to sound like blasphemy, but I actually think Metroid Other M had a decent idea of how to handle Samus being solitary but still giving her a supporting cast. The execution of it was dreadful, especially the part where she began taking orders for no reason, but the idea was solid: she’s on a solo mission, she runs into some other people whose objectives overlap with hers, she doesn’t quite join them but agrees to share intel and resources while still mostly working on her own. For bonus tension, maybe she’s not sure if she can fully trust the other party but can’t afford to ignore their help.Eventually the Metroids and/or the space pirates will show up and Samus’ allies will start getting picked off one by one. By the end, Samus will be solitary again.
That’s a good idea. Plus with a movie, you could handle any backstory she had with any of the characters much more deftly than with the clumsy flashbacks of the game.
Nah you’re dead on. I was thinking of Other M as well. It was a failure of the writing, not the premise itself.
You could do a zelda movie with Link and Zelda/Sheik and then have your pick for a third character. Wanna do a meta movie? Ganon. Want a specific game? Impa or Midna or Navi. Is illumination doing it? Tingle.
Metroid, meanwhile, would be the hardest to adapt because Samus is so defined by being a solitary character.You could still do that with an ensemble. The only reason it doesn’t seem like it’d work is because our only real example of Other M, and that was a failure of the writing.Have Samus deployed on a rescue mission. So she crosses path with civilians she has to help out. Make the quest about getting to them and then getting them out before something happens.
Honestly, you could literally just make a Star Fox movie by making an animated rip-off of Star Wars. Just take the 4 squad mates, put them on a spy mission to get info on the enemy. They get found out and embark on a daring escape from capture. They rendezvous back with their space force to take part in a final showdown, with or without a trench run.
But what about
Not even gonna take a swing at their own Avengers Endgame with Smash Bros? …I’m only kidding, I cannot imagine a world where that wouldn’t be awful
I think a Smash Bro’s would be a decent movie depending on how they format it (they could do the spirit mode of smash ultimate) with this they have a basic story
They finally went too far when they cast Chris Pratt as Pac-Man.
If Vin Diesel can get a huge salary from saying “I am Groot” for multiple movies, Pratt should do the same with “wakka wakka wakka” for 90 minutes
I was fine with that but I thought the nude cabaret scene was a bit excessive.
That’s for the fourth and fifth Mario movies, when they finish off with a two-part finale adapted from Super Mario RPG.
It should crossover with Disney’s Kingdom Hearts universe
Now there’s a real multiverse of madness. The world isn’t ready.
Smash Bros would be the easiest movie to make. Mario and friends get in to a fighting tournament orchestrated by “Master Hand” only for it to reveal itself as any number of galactic demons that we’ve been getting since Subspace Emmisary.I was honestly surprised the Mario movie is already touching on Mario Kart. That’s a whole movie in itself as it is.
A while ago, IGN put up an incredibly convincing Zelda movie trailer as an April Fools joke.
I would kill for a meditative action movie about a solitary figure like Samus attempting to save the galaxy all by herself.
‘I wish they had a Metroid movie’ (One finger on the monkey paw curls)
God I remember when that first trailer came out and I was so excited. What a damn letdown.
Yeah Team ninja doesn’t know how to write a good story. Retro Studios on the other hand.
If anyone wants a Legend of Zelda movie/show, just check out the Legend of Neil.
That was such a weird show, in that it wasn’t particularly good, but bits of it live in my head rent-free (call me OLD man!)
All the Old Man stuff is great:Neil: Wait, Princess Zelda? Is she hot?Old Man: She’s ****able. Like a seven, seven and a half. Although you only appear to be a six. Or a five…
I think a lot of people missed the end credits scene where Jean Ralphios Sonic invites Pratts Mario to the Smash Bros initiative.
Had you thought about a massive movie focusing on “Smash Bro’s Melee” Nintendo would be able to incorporate almost all these characters.
I know it’s not a Nintendo IP but I’ve always wanted a film adaptation of Sly Cooper. They made a trailer for it but then canceled it after the Ratchet and Clank film flopped.
I’d love if this team went on to do a Sly Cooper movie, seeing as they went to great lengths to do a Star Fox fan series, and Nintendo was…not happy. I thought it was fantastic, though.
I should point out Animal Crossing ALREADY has a movie, it just never made it to the States (it was based on the GameCube game, but came out when Nintendo was gearing up for the Wii). My personal picks for some of the characters: Nick Offerman as Tom Nook, Amy Poehler as Isabelle, and Matt Berry as Blathers.
I like the idea of a live-action Samus being played by Gwendoline Christie. She’s badass, muscular, and the right height for Samus. Captain Phasma is already very Samus-esque.
Don’t let Link talk in the Zelda movie, but let him emote like in the Windwaker games. A silent character can still be funny.
How many movies have you seen in which the (human) main protagonist doesn’t talk at all? That sounds like a terrible idea. Also that Star Fox thing is really bad. I kinda like the art style—it has a cool, low-rent, 70s Bakshi-esque thing going on—but the writing, well, sounds like every piece of fan fiction ever written, and I absolutely HATE the dark tone, which is not at all fitting with SF. And holy shit, it was boring. Who is even the audience for this thing? It’s too dark and dull for any kid to go for it, and I think most adults would roll their eyes at the awful writing.
I would like to see the Mr. Do universe. hopefully eventually having a cross-over with the DigDug universe. Also waiting for the Q-bert universe, which could cross over with the Miner 2049er-verse
Miner 2049 universe! This summer Terry Crews IS Bounty Bob!
I hope neither Zelda nor Metroid get a film because I want both as series produced by proper studios. I know Zelda was in various stages of almost coming to life before. There are many ways that it could work and probably as multiples series—from Ghibli animation like to LOTR like live action adventure. I’d really like to see different approaches like this over time. I think Metroid can also work as either. I could see an adulty anime like Castlevania or a pure sci-fi live action like Lost in Space that focused on exploration vs. battle. Of course, any of these would need to take quite a few structural liberties to bring in other characters and stakes, etc. to work narratively. I just can’t see Nintendo doing either justice with a film where they will inevitably try go light and juvenile with humor if left to their own devices.
For films, Kid Icarus could make for a Pixar-style quest film set in faux-ancient Greece right now. It looks like Nintendo owns Star Fox now, which could work as the basis for whatever type of kids space adventure series or film you wanted, though I probably wouldn’t be interested.
If you get your Metroid series, here’s my pitch for episode 4:A young man enters a space bar. He looks agitated. Goes to the bartender, and asks for a specific drink, which is supposed to be code for something. A tall shady alien sits next to the young man. They interact via small talk, the tall alien making cold short questions, most importantly “so, where are you going next?”. The young man pauses for a bit, and nervously answers “anywhere, and as quick as possible”. Suddenly, there’s commotion in the bar. Something is happening in the streets. The tall alien turns to the young man, his face pale and completely devoid of whatever confidence he had before. He tells the young man, in a hushed voice:“Shit… She’s after you, isn’t she?”The rest of the episode is from the point of view of the young man trying to escape while Samus is hunting him, for crimes that will remain undisclosed but are implied to be heinous.
I think that Pixar-short style, they should do Pikmin shorts before Nintendo movies. They’ve already made Pikmin shorts on the 3DS so it wouldn’t even be that weird a thing to do.
I mean, I feel like we’re more likely to get more Mario movies before any of these. They already have the Mario models created, a lot of the style and direction for the world decided, and the main cast done (whether you like them or not). So they can use that to make another Mario-centric adventure movie (Mario Odyssey, anyone?) or stuff featuring side characters (Luigi’s Mansion, something to introduce Wario, Donkey Kong Country, etc).
It would never happen, but I’d be there day 1 for a Splatoon movie that was entirely in the fake squid language with subtitles
Ok I’d totally fuck with a Kirby voiced by H Jon Benjamin as a pink ball bro that’s sick of King Dedede’s shit.
For Zelda, they should adapt Marora’s Mask and make it a time loop movie ala Groundhog’s Day.
Can’t really do a Majora’s Mask movie without first adapting Ocarina of Time.
What? Of course you can. Look at BotW. That game’s whole story was a sequel to something that didn’t exist.
Zelda is a nope because Link is a silent protagonist and needs to remain that way. We have all formed our own idea of who he is and what he’s like and creating a movie version that talks will challenge too many people’s perception of what he should be. There’s no winning in that scenario. That plus it would have to be a series of movies or a tv show. One movie doesn’t lend enough time to do justice to how long Link’s adventures have been, and should continue to be. BOTW got major strikes from me for not having the usual 8 themed dungeons.
“Well excuUUuuuse me, princess!”- Link
Insert There Will Be Brawl reference here, for I will be That Guy.
Eh. Everything I saw from that came off as Edgelord nonsense.
Zelda, but do it the style of Wind Waker. Maybe Link will finally talk? Who would voice him?
Nearly all of those properties have had adaptations before (barring Punch-Out and EarthBound)! Problem is, they’re either tied to Japanese media (and not fully localized), or…just not very good.
Wasn’t there a Zelda Netflix series in the pipe or did I dream that?
Nintendo pulled it ages ago because a Netflix employee linked info about it: https://www.engadget.com/zelda-netflix-live-action-show-leak-rumor-184755257.html
The youtube channel Drawfee semi-accidentally came up with ‘Luigi’s Mansion done by Aardman Productions’ (Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep), and even if I do prefer other Nintendo IPs, that one’s perfect.Seriously, small quirky claymation comedy about Luigi desperately trying to bust some ghosts? That’s it, that’s perfect, we can all go home.
Charlie Day as Luigi would be the perfect fit for a Luigi’s Mansion movie.
The film is currently projected at a $125 million debut, the biggest of 2023 to date.Is that counting Wednesday as well since the movie came out two days ago?
only if they remake Platoon for SplatoonIn war…the first casualty is…your use of the TV when your kid wants to play games
Zelda’s pretty easy- I wouldn’t even mind an animated film using the cell-shaded style that’s become so en vogue these days.
Punch Out would be awesome. Just lean into the stereotypes by being overly wacky. Like a boxing version of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.
Metroid is the Holy Grail for me. Get this right, and they’ll have saved cinema.And if they are looking for a new Fast & Furious:
The real question: Will we be getting a Captain N movie?
Do F-Zero
Nester’s Funky Bowling seems like the obvious next step.
I don’t really get these super-literal reasons why some of these can’t be adapted. “Link is silent” seems more due to in-game mechanics (where the player needs to self-insert) than something true-to-character, ditto Metroid (which has had plenty of dialogue otherwise in the past few games). Just seems like a very uncreative outlook on how these characters can be adapted.Probably the bigger issue is condensing all this into 90-ish minutes and retaining the scope of the games. This isn’t really an issue for a Mario movie (though a lot of reviews say otherwise, though this still strikes me as misplaced expectations) because there’s comparatively less world building in the games, but not so much for Zelda or Metroid.
The internet had a collective apoplexy when they revealed Pratt wasn’t doing a borderline-offensive Italian stereotype voice for Mario; what makes you think these man/womenchildren could handle a talking Link?
Duck Hunt™
Hunter – Armie Hammer
Dog – Alec Baldwin
Duck – Gwyneth Paltrow