Shigeru Miyamoto, the legendary creator of Super Mario and executive fellow at Nintendo, has shed light on the company’s growing commitment to film production, emphasizing the timeless nature of cinema as a medium. In a recent interview with Kyodo News, Miyamoto explained that Nintendo’s push into movies represents a long-term vision to strengthen the company’s global brand and preserve its stories for future generations.
“Games eventually stop running when newer versions come out, but films remain forever,” Miyamoto pointed out. This simple idea beautifully captures Nintendo’s core strategy: that movies can serve as a permanent cultural link to their history. Films allow audiences to easily reconnect with the company’s iconic characters and worlds, even long after the original games have aged out of rotation. It’s a calculated, deliberate shift toward transmedia storytelling, transforming beloved franchises into cinematic hits aimed squarely at reaching the broadest global audience possible.
Nintendo’s modern film ambitions began with The Super Mario Bros. Movie in 2023, an animated reimagining of the beloved franchise co-produced by Illumination and Nintendo. The film depicted the origin story of Mario and Luigi, two plumbers from Brooklyn who are thrust into the fantastical Mushroom Kingdom. With its vivid animation, playful humor, and nods to the video game series, the movie was both a critical talking point and a monumental commercial success. Grossing approximately $1.36 billion worldwide, it became the highest-grossing video game adaptation in history and the second-highest-grossing film of 2023, firmly establishing Nintendo as a serious player in cinematic entertainment.
Following its record-breaking success, Nintendo confirmed that a direct sequel titled The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is currently in production. Set for release on April 3, 2026, in the United States, the sequel will once again be co-produced by Illumination and Nintendo, with the title suggesting inspiration from the Super Mario Galaxy video games. Meanwhile, the company has also announced its first major live-action project: The Legend of Zelda, scheduled for release on May 7, 2027. Developed in collaboration with Sony Pictures, the film represents a significant creative leap as Nintendo ventures beyond animation into high-budget live-action filmmaking.
While only Mario and Zelda have been officially confirmed, industry chatter points to additional projects on the horizon. Chief among them is the long-rumored Donkey Kong animated feature, which appears increasingly likely to be in active development. According to filings with the U.S. Copyright Office, Nintendo Studios LLC and Universal Pictures jointly registered an “Untitled Donkey Kong Project; Motion picture” in June 2025. The filing serves as strong evidence that the character—voiced by Seth Rogen in The Super Mario Bros. Movie—may soon receive his own cinematic adventure.
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