A Zelda movie? A new Pokemon adaptation? Everything can happen now after The Super Mario Bros. Movie success. It’s been just two weeks since Mario and Luigi returned to the big screen in the newest Illumination adaptation of the Nintendo hit game, but the movie has already become one of the biggest box office smashes of the year, and it seems that it will continue to break records.
After beating Frozen 2 as the best opening weekend for an animated movie in the history of cinema, Super Mario maintained the first spot at the box office for its second weekend and is set to repeat that this same week. The film has also already surpassed Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania as the highest-grossing movie of 2023, and it hasn’t even been released in Japan, where Nintendo popularity is off the charts.
While fans are of course hoping for a second movie to continue the plumber’s adventures, they’re also wondering if other Nintendo games will make it to the big screen after this smashing success. And it seems that it will.
While speaking to Japanese site Nihon Keizai Shimbun (via My Nintendo News), video game creator Shigeru Miyamoto revealed there is "no doubt" that more adaptations are coming next. So fans can expect some other Nintendo franchises hitting the screen in the future.
What Other Nintendo Games Could Be Adapted?
Besides Pokemon and Mario, which are definitely the most popular names within Nintendo, there’s a third place in that podium and it’s saved for The Legend of Zelda. This is probably fans' favorite choice when they’re asked about which adaptation they want to see next.
Zelda follows the heroic adventures of the young warrior Link, who must face dangers and solve puzzles to help Princess Zelda defeat Ganondorf and save his home, the kingdom of Hyrule.
When it comes to Pokemon, Warner Bros. Discovery is already working on a second Detective Pikachu movie, so it might be complicated for Illumination to develop a different movie for the same franchise. So it might take a while for them to do any project related to it.
Another great choice would be to develop Super Mario Bros. spin-offs, and the perfect character for doing so is Seth Rogen’s Donkey Kong. The character was one of the most acclaimed by the fans in the movie, and it has a huge range of games with him as a protagonist that could be used as source material for a movie.