Move over Mario, Luigi and ‘The Legend of Zelda’ movie rumors are ramping up

Rumors are flying around that some of Nintendo‘s video game characters got a little bit jealous of seeing Mario in the limelight after this year’s box office hit, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and want a little piece of the action. Following the former film’s resounding success, Nintendo and Illumination may have a Luigi spinoff, and a Legend of Zelda movie in the pipeline.

Given The Super Mario Bros. Movie was such a commercial hit, such a move would surprise practically nobody. Why wouldn’t Nintendo capitalize on other wildly popular intellectual property? The rumors surfaced on Zippo, so while the speculation may not be ironclad, the site has been correct about Nintendo scoops in the past.

It was reported that Nintendo currently has four projects in the works, one related to Donkey Kong, a spin-off about Luigi, and the other two potential features originating from The Legend of Zelda franchise. The Luigi spin-off is something that Luigi voice actor in the recent film, Charlie Day, has hinted that he would be interested in, in particular focusing on the haunted mansion game, telling ComicBook:

“Yeah, my son was just playing Luigi’s Mansion the other day on his Switch. Look, I’m thrilled to get the opportunity, I grew up playing Super Mario Brothers as did everyone I know so, we’ll see! It’s like anything else in life, I’ll go if I’m invited!”

This is one of the more well-known games that sees Luigi off on a spooky adventure without his shorter, more famous (sorry, Luigi but its true) brother. Fans are well down for this idea, particularly if it were to go hard on the horror.

In regards to the Zelda rumors, the blog states that the film would be an “amalgamation of very different Zelda games, rather than a straight adaption of like, say… Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, etc. Also, yes, Link will speak.” Since this post though, Illumination has come out to deny that any such film is being planned, with its CEO Chris Meledandri stating “I don’t know where that [rumor] came from.”

So yet again, we must stress that all of the above are simply rumors for the time being, and ones that have already been dismissed by the higher-ups, so don’t get too invested in the idea of them becoming a reality. That said, it would seem like a no-brainer for Nintendo. After the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, we are sure the video game publisher is cooking up some ideas about how to follow it up.