Super Mario movie coming in 2022, with creator Shigeru Miyamoto on board

First came Detective Pikachu. Then the Sonic movie wasn’t quite a bad as everyone though. And then lo, the king came to claim his crown:

HBO is making a Last of Us show. Tom Holland is starring in an Uncharted movie. They made a movie about Sonic the Hedgehog and it wasn’t as godawful as everyone feared. After decades of not getting taken seriously, video game adaptations are finally getting some respect, and it was only a matter of time before the king of video games, Super Mario himself, got in on the fun.

We’ve known that a Super Mario movie has been in the pipeline for a while, but Nintendo’s new Corporate Management Policy Briefing for this fiscal year confirms it. Buried deep in the text, the document clarifies that Illumination Entertainment head Chris Meledandri (the guy behind Despicable Me and Minions) is working on a CGI-animated movie about the iconic plumber/go-kart racer/tennis champion/etc, with original creator Shigeru Miyamoto as a co-producer. What’s more, production is apparently “moving ahead smoothly” and the whole thing is on track for a theatrical release in 2022, which hopefully after this whole coronavirus thing is over and we can all go to the theater without fear.

Mario has made it to the big screen before, played by Bob Hoskins in the legendary what-the-hell-am-I-watching movie Super Mario Bros. from 1993. This would be one of those movies made before Hollywood started taking video games seriously:

Honestly, I kind of appreciate how off-the-wall stonking BIZARRE that movie is, but it’s definitely not good.

And things might not end with the new movie. The briefing explains that Nintendo has “already embarked on multiple other visual content expansion projects.” That means we could see TV shows, YouTube videos…maybe Mario will get a TikTok? Anything’s possible.

This strategy is consistent with Nintendo spinning out their brands in new ways. They’re still a game developer first, but between the movies and the new Super Nintendo World theme park in Japan (with plans to bring it over to Orlando and Hollywood down the line), they’re clearly trying some new stuff. And I think they’re doing it at the right time.

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h/t SyFy Wire