A Super Smash Bros. movie isn’t on the cards according to Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto, as he explains how Fox McCloud ended up in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is out now in cinemas, but Nintendo and Illumination spoiled one of its biggest surprises ahead of time.
Last week, Nintendo announced Fox McCloud from Star Fox would make an appearance in the film, voiced by Glen Powell. Additionally, a prior teaser confirmed Pikmin would also show up in some capacity.
The presence of Nintendo characters from beyond the Mushroom Kingdom raised questions over if the company is building towards an Avengers-style Super Smash Bros. movie in the future. However, Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto has said this isn’t in the pipeline.
Asked by Polygon about the prospect of a ‘Nintendo Cinematic Universe’, Miyamoto said: ‘Right off the bat, I’ll say that unlike something like Super Smash Bros., I don’t think you’ll have a situation [where] all Nintendo characters would be joining. As you know, my rule is that Pikmin can appear in any [Nintendo] series.’
While the phrase ‘don’t think’ isn’t exactly definitive, it certainly sounds like a big Nintendo crossover movie isn’t on the cards anytime soon.
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Chris Meledandri, CEO of Illumination, explained how they approached cameos in the sequel as ‘more incidental than strategic’, saying: ‘When you use the term universe, it conjures up for me this idea that there’s a group of real smart people in a room with charts up on a wall and they’re planning the next 10 years of how all the characters might be weaving in and out of movies. Our process is actually very different from that.
‘It’s much more geared toward conversations about what would be fun within a certain scene in the movie. So these ideas come up based on, ‘Oh, wouldn’t it be fun if the Pikmin appeared here? Wouldn’t that be fun?’ And that conversation, if we agree that it’s a fun idea, then we look to Miyamoto-san to just make his own judgement about whether or not it feels right to him, but it’s much more incidental than strategic.’
However, if rumours of a new Star Fox game are true, it’s difficult to believe the cameo choice wasn’t strategically planned to some degree.
According to a separate interview on Forbes, the idea for a Fox McCloud appearance originally came from Illumination, and was later approved by Miyamoto.
‘When I got the proposal from Chris about including Star Fox, in general, from Nintendo’s perspective, we tend to avoid mixing IPs, except for the Pikmin cameo,’ Miyamoto said. ‘With that said, though, as the creator of Star Fox and this movie taking place in space, I felt that I wanted to see that.
‘I wanted to see what it would be like, but I also felt that there may be significant resistance internally about that idea, so after I got this proposal, I contacted the necessary parties involved and started my lobbying activity here at Nintendo.
‘However, I was surprised to find that a lot of people saw a lot of potential with it and were really excited to see what would come out of this.’
Beyond The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Nintendo is developing a live-action adaptation of The Legend Of Zelda. The film, directed by Wes Ball, stars Bo Bragason and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as Princess Zelda and Link respectively. It is set to be released on May 7, 2027.
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