There have been recent rumors that Illumination, Universal, and Nintendo are close The Legend of Zelda Movie deal, but Mario filmmakers have put it on hold.
It’s safe to say that the Super Mario Bros. movie made a lot of money (it’s one of the best-performing animated films of all time). Not surprisingly, everyone is wondering what the next Nintendo IP will be? A recent report claims it’s actually Zelda, and rumor has it that Nintendo, Universal, and Illumination are very close to a deal. But that’s not the case, and according to an interview with The Wrap, Super Mario Bros. filmmaker Chris Meledandri said he didn’t even know where the rumors were coming from.
“I don’t know where that came from,” Meledandri said of the rumor. “I mean I can understand how people would speculate on various things, because obviously we had a great experience working together. My relationship with Nintendo now includes being on their board of directors, so I understand how people would speculate on that. thing. But in terms of specifics, that’s just what I’ve heard a lot of reports. That’s the next step between Nintendo and Illumination.”
This quote from Meledandri apparently does indicate that the producer and Nintendo are now very connected, so it wouldn’t be surprising if Nintendo did plan to work with Illumination again. After all, a Mario sequel does technically seem to be in the works, at least according to his voice actor, Chris Pratt.
A Zelda movie could take a long time to seal the deal, though, as Nintendo is known for protecting its intellectual property — plus, Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma himself says there aren’t any plans yet.
Personally, I really don’t want Illumination to deal with the Zelda movies. I’m not necessarily a member of Studio Ghibli either, let’s give some young animation studios in Japan a chance. I just really don’t want Link to be voiced by someone like Tom Holland saying “Hi” in an overly thick movie trailer voice.
