Rumor – Nintendo is presumably working on a Donkey Kong movie per a newly filed copyright

Over the weekend, news broke that Nintendo had filed a copyright for an untitled Donkey Kong motion picture. As a matter of fact, that’s exactly what the copyright states, as you can read on the Public Records System website. While there is no official news from Nintendo about whether a project is in development, it’s been rumored ever since The Super Mario Bros. Movie released in 2023 and grossed over $1 billion at the global box office. With the soon-to-be-released Donkey Kong Bananza ready to hit shelves, it also adds up as Nintendo seemingly wants to focus on more than just Mario and Zelda.

Eurogamer notes that during Nintendo’s most recent investor call meeting, president Shuntaro Furukawa noted that the company was looking to expand into the “visual content business.” That’s really just fancy talk for “we want to make movies,” and Donkey Kong is a natural extension of what Illumination achieved with Mario. As you can see on the copyright, Universal is listed as the second party involved with this film, lending more credence to past rumors. Furukawa did note that Nintendo has no plans beyond the upcoming live-action Zelda film, but it would be silly to suggest that a company as large as Nintendo isn’t already planning out its future.

 

 

Upcoming Nintendo movies

 

If we look at the next few years for Nintendo on the silver screen, we have The Super Mario Bros. Movie sequel in 2026, and then the live-action Zelda film in 2027. If Illumination is involved with this DK film, I wouldn’t expect it to release until maybe 2029. Because they just filed the copyright, I can’t imagine they’ve completed any preliminary work yet.

 

More Donkey Kong

 

Donkey Kong Bananza copies are out in the wild, so beware of spoilers

 

Donkey Kong Bananza developers explain the decision to make Pauline younger

 

Donkey Kong Bananza began life as a Switch 1 game, similar to Mario Kart World

 

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