Highlights
- Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa confirmed a long-term film and animation strategy to grow Nintendo IP outside gaming titles.
- After the $1.36B Super Mario Bros. Movie, more Nintendo film adaptations are planned.
- The company is also exploring anime and animated series to build a lasting Nintendo media ecosystem.
Nintendo President, Shuntaro Furukawa, reiterated the company’s intentions to expand its intellectual property into a sustained slate of films and animated video projects. Furukawa’s remarks, made during an interview with Japanese news outlet Kyoto Shimbun, later re-reported by several media outlets, underline Nintendo’s growing emphasis on storytelling beyond games as part of a broader media ecosystem.
Furukawa stressed that Nintendo is developing a framework for regular film releases, stating that films reach people in regions where game consoles are not widespread. According to him, the main motivation behind the production of projects like The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) is increasing character exposure beyond Nintendo’s games.
This strategy follows the commercial success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which grossed over $1.36 billion USD globally, and precedes the scheduled April 2026 release of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, an animated sequel produced with Illumination. While he did not announce a full slate of confirmed titles, Furukawa suggested more adaptations are likely to follow the already announced Mario and The Legend of Zelda (2027) projects.
In addition to films, Furukawa acknowledged the possibility of anime and other animated formats as part of Nintendo’s media expansion strategy. He referred to the Close to You animated shorts, created by Nintendo Pictures, for spreading awareness of Nintendo’s Pikmin franchise.
Nintendo’s Strategic Push into Films and Animation
Nintendo’s renewed focus on films stems directly from the broader industry trend of leveraging popular video game franchises as transmedia properties. The blockbuster performances of The Super Mario Bros. Movie and A Minecraft Movie (2025) demonstrated that game adaptations can draw mainstream audiences beyond core gamers.
Under Furukawa’s leadership, Nintendo has also been involved in the planning and production of movies, rather than solely licensing its IP. He noted that internal production arms such as Nintendo Pictures, previously known as Dynamo Pictures, are central to this strategy.
Nintendo acquired this CG studio, known for popular animated series such as Yuri on Ice and Ghost in the Shell SAC_2045, in 2022, during the production of the first Super Mario movie.
According to Furakawa, movies, video series, and the like, chiefly differ from video games, because it can be enjoyed for a long time across multiple platforms, whereas games face restraints over time, due to various constraints. He underscored that the company aims to create works that are unique and distinctive to Nintendo.
Apart from the upcoming movies, Nintendo has long produced animated productions based on Pokémon IP, which has turned the franchise into one of the most durable IPs globally for decades. Now, Nintendo's current strategy appears more incremental and controlled, emphasizing quality and brand consistency over rapid expansion and promising more new film and animation productions with flagship Nintendo IPs.
The company’s emphasis on brand exposure through media adaptations is not an isolated incident in the global gaming industry in recent years. Popular franchises like Call of Duty, Helldivers, and League of Legends have already greenlit adaptations to sustain cross-cultural engagement in a crowded gaming market.
Disclaimer: The original Japanese interview has been machine-translated by VGC.
