Nintendo has just confirmed that a Super Mario movie is in the works and, as we speculated back in November, Illumination will be working on the film. This, via a tweet from Nintendo’s official Twitter account following the project’s reveal in a strategy briefing:
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Nintendo and Illumination are partnering on a movie starring Mario, co-produced by Shigeru Miyamoto and Chris Meledandri! pic.twitter.com/wVRPLIzcGJ
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) February 1, 2018
The Mario movie will be co-produced by Mario’s creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, and Chris Meledandri, who you can thank for producing films like Despicable Me, Sing, and Minions. This always seemed like the most logical outcome given Nintendo‘s recent partnership with Universal Studios, and we can’t say that we’re disappointed. The Mario movie is in good hands, and we can’t wait to see what Illumination will bring to the table.
At this time we have no key art or official assets for the film. The image of Mario you see in the tweet above is a pretty standard stock image that we see frequently for advertisements. We’re eager to see Illumination’s take on Nintendo’s mascot, who just so happens to be the most famous video game icon in the world.
The Super Mario movie reveal is just one of several major announcements to come out of this strategy briefing. Nintendo also revealed this afternoon that its next major mobile game will be a brand new Mario Kart title, which is slated to hit smartphones by the end of the fiscal year ending in March 2019. There were no screenshots shared, and no additional details given for the game. Since it won’t launch until 2019, we assume it will be a while before we see official assets.
Nintendo also revealed that it will officially be launching its paid online service for Nintendo Switch in September of this year. Nintendo Switch Online will function similarly to Xbox Live Gold or PlayStation Plus, where players will be asked to pay a flat monthly fee in order to access online multiplayer gaming for most Nintendo Switch titles. The service will also offer players an opportunity to download classic Nintendo games from past consoles, but whether those games will be ours to keep, or function more like rotating demos, has not be clarified for now.
Stay tuned, we have more breaking Nintendo announcements coming your way! Head back to our home page to see more!
