Following The Super Mario Bros. Movie‘s massive success at the box office, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom producer Eiji Aonuma and director Hidemaro Fujibayashi admitted that they want The Legend of Zelda to be the next Nintendo franchise to receive a big screen adaptation.
During an interview with Polygon to promote Tears of the Kingdom, Aonuma and Fujibayashi were asked if there was interest at Nintendo in adapting The Legend of Zelda to film. “I am interested for sure,” said Aonuma. “But it’s not just me being interested in something that makes things happen, unfortunately!” Although The Super Mario Bros. Movie has dominated the global box office for over a month now, Nintendo CEO Shuntaro Furukawa recently shared in an investors call that the company isn’t looking to rush into any new film projects based on Nintendo characters. However, Fujibayashi shared that “the voices of the fans are what’s important here” and that, if they make enough noise, they could convince Nintendo to move forward with a Legend of Zelda movie.
The Legend of Zelda is arguably Nintendo’s most recognizable and successful franchise after Super Mario. The first video game in the series, The Legend of Zelda, was created by Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka and was released in February 1986. The series primarily centers around Link, a courageous young man of the elf-like Hylian race, and Princess Zelda, a magical princess who is the mortal reincarnation of the goddess Hylia, as they fight to save the magical land of Hyrule from the evil warlord/demon king Ganon. The latest video game in the series, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, was released on May 12, 2023, for the Nintendo Switch.
Super Mario Bros. Joins the $1 Billion Box Office Club
Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, The Super Mario Bros. Movie was released in April 2023, starring Chris Pratt and Charlie Day as the voices of Mario and Luigi, respectively. The Illumination/Universal film has so far earned over $1.1 billion worldwide, making Super Mario Bros. the fifth-highest-grossing animated film of all time after 2019’s The Lion King ($1.66B), Frozen II ($1.45B), Frozen ($1.29B) and Incredibles 2 ($1.24B). The animated film has also earned over $500 million domestically, which is a box office milestone that only 18 other films have achieved.
Are There Plans for Super Mario Bros. 2?
While Nintendo and Illumination have not announced plans for a Super Mario Bros. sequel, producer Chris Meledandri remains hopeful that future installments will happen. “I’m not allowed to talk about [a possible Super Mario Bros. Movie sequel] right now,” he said in an interview shortly after the film’s release. “Clearly I’ll continue to work with [Nintendo] on the board level and we definitely hope to do more things together.” Jack Black, who voices Bowser in Super Mario Bros., has publicly pitched that he would like to see Wario and Waluigi added to the sequel, with The Last of Us‘ Pedro Pascal voicing the former.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is currently playing in theaters.
Source: Polygon
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