Nintendo might be including characters from across its various franchises in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. However, the company, alongside production house Illumination, isn’t quite ready to tackle something more ambitious like a Super Smash Bros. movie just yet. In an interview with Polygon, Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto and Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri spoke about the upcoming movie and the different cameos that we will get to see.
Miyamoto spoke about how viewers won’t really get to see various Nintendo characters teaming up outside of “something like Super Smash Bros.“. However, he also has a rule that characters like Pikmin can show up in any Nintendo game. As a result, these inclusions are more likely to be simple cameos for fans already familiar with Nintendo’s other works.
“Right off the bat, I’ll say that unlike something like Super Smash Bros., I don’t think you’ll have a situation [where] all Nintendo characters would be joining,” he said. “As you know, my rule is that Pikmin can appear in any [Nintendo] series.”
“We have plenty of characters to create a movie, and yet we wanted to add a little bit of spice, a little bit of secret cameos here and there. And you’ll see that there’s one secret character that plays a big role,” he continued. “So I think there might be introductions of characters like this potentially in the future, something like that.”
Meledandri also noted that Illumination isn’t really taking the “bigger picture” into account when it comes to deciding what characters might show up in the movie. As such, there aren’t any major plans about a “Nintendo Cinematic Universe” just yet.
“When you use the term universe, it conjures up for me this idea that there’s a group of really smart people in a room with charts up on a wall and they’re planning the next 10 years of how all the characters might be weaving in and out of movies. Our process is actually very different from that,” he explained. ”
“It’s much more geared toward conversations about what would be fun within a certain scene in the movie. So these ideas come up based on, “Oh, wouldn’t it be fun if the Pikmin appeared here? Wouldn’t that be fun?” And then that conversation, if we agree that it’s a fun idea, then we look to Miyamoto-san to just make his own judgment about whether or not it feels right to him, but it’s much more incidental than strategic.”
Nintendo, having recently confirmed that Star Fox franchise protagonist Fox McCloud will be appearing in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, sparked quite a bit of discussion among fans. Since the character is also quite a popular pick for intense matches in the Super Smash Bros. games, many started speculating that Nintendo might be laying the foundations for an eventual crossover movie featuring all of its different franchises, in the vein of the platform fighter.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie hits theatres this week. For more details, check out the final trailer that was released just last month. For those among you who may not mind spoilers, here’s how the BBFC rating for the film might have ended up spoiling a long-speculated plot twist.
