Nintendo recently held a management briefing with investors. At this event, discussion of Nintendo IPs extended beyond video games and into the realm of television and movies.
Nintendo referred to this as “visual content expansion initiatives,” and noted that it might not be limited to just film. That means there is a chance that we will see some of Nintendo’s most beloved characters come to life on the small screen in the form of television shows.
Of course, the Japanese gaming giant did not expand on this statement in any way, but it is still hell bent on developing more entertainment outside of the video game bubble.
During the meeting, Nintendo said that they would, “continue to invest in these entertainment expansion initiatives to increase the number of people who have access to our IP.”
Of course, Nintendo is no stranger to this concept. During the late 80s and early 90s we got a number of Nintendo cartoon shows, including a Legend of Zelda animated series. And who could forget the legendary Super Mario Bros. Super Show with the WWE’s Captain Lou Albano voicing Mario?
Then there was Captain N: The Game Master, which aired on NBC. This is a true treasure of Nintendo fun and kind of an early concept Super Smash Bros. in that it included characters from a number of different games. This included Mother Brain from Metroid, King Hippo from Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, Eggplant Wizard and Pit from Kid Icarus, Doctor Wiley from Mega Man, Donkey Kong, The Count and Alucard from Castlevania, Link, Princess Zelda, and even Ganon from Legend of Zelda.
The company also noted that the previously announced Super Mario Bros. animated film is still set to hit theaters in 2022. Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, production on this film has continued to move forward smoothly. Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario, will serve as a producer on the film, while the animation is being done by Illumination, the studio responsible for Despicable Me and Minions.
It will be distributed by Universal Pictures, which comes as no surprise, seeing as how Super Nintendo World, a full theme park land, is coming to Universal Studios theme parks in the coming years, starting with Universal Studios Japan.
Of course, this will not be the first time we’ve seen Mario put to the big screen. The less said about the disastrous 90s live action Mario film the better. Hopefully Nintendo is going in a much different direction for Mario’s next silver screen adventure.