Illumination’s boss has responded to reports that a Zelda movie is planned

The boss of Illumination has responded to claims that the company could follow up its Super Mario movie success with a Legend of Zelda film.

Last week, veteran film reporter Jeff Sneider said he’d been informed by a “great source” that Nintendo was close to striking a deal with Universal for a Zelda movie.

“Zelda will be, is looking like the next big Illumination Nintendo franchise,” he claimed.

Asked about the report, Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri told The Wrap: “I don’t know where that came from. I mean I can understand how people would surmise all sorts of things because obviously, we’ve had a great experience working together.

“My relationship with Nintendo now includes being on their board of directors, so I understand how people can surmise these things. But in terms of the specifics, that was just something that I’ve been hearing lots of reports. This is just about what’s next between Nintendo and Illumination.”

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is the biggest film of 2023 to date, having grossed $1.32 billion at the global box office since its release in early April.

It’s followed by Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which launched a month after Mario and has grossed $809 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

Chris Pratt, who voices Mario in the film, recently said news about a sequel should be coming “soon”.

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said during the company’s quarterly earnings call last month: “As for the future, we plan to pour our efforts into a variety of visual content, as we did last year with the consolidation of Nintendo Pictures Co., Ltd. as a subsidiary.

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“We are very happy that this movie is a hit, but will remain focused on carefully developing and further expanding each IP while respecting its unique characteristics, just as we have done in the past.

“Through our strategy of expanding the number of people who have access to Nintendo IP, we want to bring people in contact with our characters and the worlds depicted in our games, with the goal of continually invigorating our core dedicated video game platform business.”