The Super Mario Bros. Movie performed ridiculously well, and video game adaptations on the whole are in a very healthy space right now. So, it’s no surprise that Nintendo is expanding its cinematic offerings, as production kicks off on a live action adaptation of The Legend of Zelda.
Now, it looks like Nintendo is taking this even further. As spotted online, it appears that Nintendo and Universal have registered another film with the US Copyright Office, under the name: “Untitled Donkey Kong Project”.
It Looks Like We’re Getting A Donkey Kong Spin-Off Movie
This was spotted by Reddit user andree1234 in GamingLeaksAnd Rumours, and suggests that Nintendo and Universal are in the very early stages of pursuing this project. It is the first murmurs we have heard about a Donkey Kong adaptation, so there’s likely very little set in stone yet, just the concept.
Any Donkey Kong movie would almost definitely be part of a shared universe, given that DK already appeared in the Mario Movie. Here, he was voiced by Seth Rogen, who has already indicated that he would be down to reprise the role in a spin-off film.
In any case, we’ll probably see DK on the big screen soon enough, as the next Mario Movie is hitting theatres on April 3, 2026. While it hasn’t been confiirmed, it would make a lot of sense for DK to make another appearance, and this could then be used as a springboard for the potential spin-off.
If this does happen, and it is indeed part of a shared universe, it will be interesting to see if Zelda fits into this at all, since it is live action. Some fans have speculated about the possibility of a big Super Smash Bros.-like crossover as part of Nintendo’s film endeavours, but there’s no word on that being the end goal right now. With that said, the Zelda film is not only different in being live action, but in being produced by Sony, not Universal, so that does seem unlikely.
If the DK movie is Nintendo’s next film project, we can expect to hear about it closer to the release of the next Mario Movie. We don’t even have a trailer for that yet, so Nintendo would likely want to focus on it when more can be revealed. In the meantime, we have Donkey Kong Bananza launching next Thursday on Nintendo Switch 2.
- Alias
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DK
- Age
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41
- Birthday
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July 9th, 1981
- Died
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Currently Alive