Nintendo hopes to release a movie in 2-3 years

Mario and Link could be making their way to a big screen near you as early as 2018.

Nintendo Life reports that Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima has said in a Japanese interview that while the company is still at an early stage in the process, and that no plans have yet been set in stone, a new Nintendo film could be released in the next two to three years.

Kimishima added that Nintendo would prefer for as much production as possible to occur in-house.

Games Industry added that Nintendo said that the movies may not necessarily be theatrical, and could be straight-to-video. The company has also seemingly ruled out a return to live-action films, a la the widely lamented live-action Mario movie of 1993.

Late Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata said way back in January 2014 that the company had fresh plans to harvest its IP in a swathe of new licensing deals. Then in August development boss Shigeru Miyamoto name-dropped movies specifically as something Nintendo was investigating.

While that Zelda Netflix rumour may have turned out to be false, with the likes of Sonic dabbling in the big screen, a recent cinema foray for Ratchet & Clank and even relatively obscure IP like Sly Cooper getting the silver screen treatment, surely there’s huge success awaiting a faithful Zelda or Metroid movie?