John Woo’s Metroid Movie Never Happened Thanks to Catwoman

For years, Nintendo largely avoided Hollywood adaptations of its properties, and a lot of that hesitation apparently came from Mario and Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto. In a new interview with the Video Game History Foundation, former Nintendo of America advertising manager Gail Tilden said that even “if Stephen Spielberg himself” wanted to make a Zelda movie, the answer was still no. However, one creator at Nintendo was much more open to the possibility, and that was Metroid co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto. At one point, a Metroid movie nearly happened under director John Woo, with Sakomoto and Metroid Prime producer Kensuke Tanabe involved in early discussions.

“John Woo’s company… had wanted to pitch to do a Metroid movie. We had several meetings, it took a long time. We would talk sometimes about who should play Samus. Should it be Charlize Theron? Should it be– no, she’s not right. Anyway, it was on and on about the actresses that they could see as Samus. Which, we never settled on anything. I think they thought [Samus is] not such a beauty, as opposed to kind of an athlete,” said Tilden.

At the time Woo and Nintendo were in talks, the Metroid Prime games on GameCube had renewed interest in the franchise, so the timing of these discussions makes a lot of sense. It seemed like all the stars had perfectly aligned for a Metroid movie to see release, and all parties were interested in making it happen. Unfortunately, there was one big obstacle in the way: the budget. As Tilden notes, at the time, there weren’t a lot of action movies starring women, and the Catwoman movie starring Halle Berry had just proven to be a high-profile failure both critically and commercially.

“We had several story angles that we pitched or presented and finally landed on something and did a pitch kit and took it out. The level of budget that would be needed to make the movie was significant. At the time, the only female action movie that had come out was Halle Berry’s Catwoman, and it didn’t do well. So, John Woo’s company pitched for Metroid, but we did not make a sale,” said Tilden.

RELATED: Nintendo Reveals Awesome New Metroid Prime Book Coming in 2025

Since Tilden’s time at Nintendo, things have changed quite a bit! These days, Nintendo has a much greater openness to working on movies. That has extended to Shigeru Miyamoto, who was closely involved with The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and is now working with Sony on a live-action adaptation of The Legend of Zelda. Though there are multiple Nintendo movies in development, there has not been any word on Metroid since the John Woo pitch failed to find a buyer. It’s interesting to think what might have been, but hopefully Samus Aran will get another chance someday.

Are you disappointed we didn’t get a Metroid movie? Do you think we’ll ever see Samus Aran on the big screen? Share your thoughts with me directly on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!