Ever since the success of the Super Mario Bros Movie in 2023, there’s been a lot of speculation about what’s next for the series. Would a sequel be greenlit, following up from the Yoshi teaser at the end of the first movie? Would Luigi and Donkey Kong receive their own movies based on the Luigi’s Mansion and Donkey Kong Country franchises? Could we see something else entirely, as part of a move towards a Nintendo Cinematic Universe?
Well as it turns out, many of those options now seem to be the case. Why? Because not only has Nintendo officially announced a Super Mario Bros Movie sequel is in the works, but a Donkey Kong film seems to be in production too!
That’s because a copyright listing has appeared with the US government for an untitled Donkey Kong film production, with Nintendo and Universal Studios being listed as the owners. Here are the relevant details from the US Copyright Office website:
- Date Recorded: 2025-06-06
- Date of Execution: 9th May 2025, 27th May 2025
- Party 1: Nintendo Studios LLC
- Party 2: Universal Pictures, a division of Universal City Studios LLC
- Notes: Short-Form License.
- Title: Untitled Donkey Kong Project Motion picture
Yeah, there’s not much here. It’s basically a statement that such a film exists and is in production, with the registration likely being prepared well in advance of its actual release date.
But it’s definitive proof that something is happening on the Donkey Kong film front nonetheless. So, what could this mystery movie have in store for us?
Honestly, it’s anyone’s guess at this point. It’s probably going to be inspired by the Donkey Kong Country franchise based on the Mario movie and recent theme park adaptation, but beyond that just everything’s up in the air.
However, we do have a theory nonetheless. One that’s looking especially likely given the recent reveals about the upcoming Donkey Kong Bananza.
That being, it’s likely a sort of hybrid story inspired by Donkey Kong Country 1, 2, Returns and Bananza. King K Rool and the Kremlings likely steal DK’s banana horde, and the latter has to work together with Diddy Kong, Dixie Kong and maybe Cranky Kong to get it back. Funky Kong probably plays a supporting role as well, and based on Bananza, it’s likely Pauline shows up in some form as well.
Their adventure will take them through all the usual DK locales (jungle, mine cart section, factory, bramble patch), barrel cannons will probably play a major role at some point or another for transport, karts and bongos will probably show up in some form or another and K Rool himself…
A Donkey Kong Country 1 style minecart level
A Donkey Kong Country 2 style bramble level
He’ll probably use the same sort of abilities as in Super Smash Bros Ultimate during his story scenes. Hence we’ll almost certainly see his blunderbuss and jetpack make an appearance in some form, with the former as one of his main weapons and the latter as his attempted escape method/way of getting around.
Music wise it’ll be like the Super Mario Bros Movie; the vast majority of songs will mix together tracks from the original series (especially the SNES and Retro era Donkey Kong Country games), with the DK Rap and a few real-life pop songs thrown in there for good measure. The phrase “it’s on like Donkey Kong” will probably show up at some point, and the voice actors for DK and Cranky will almost certainly be the same ones as in the Mario Movie (Seth Rogan and Fred Armisen).
As for new voice actors? Again, hard to say. Diddy could get the same actor as in the Mario movie (Eric Bauza), but he could equally get replaced too. Nintendo loves a big-name actor for their movies’ main cast, and it’s possible they’ll want another well-known celebrity for the second most prominent character in the film. Same goes with Dixie and Funky Kong, neither of which got a voice actor the last time around.
And K Rool will probably get another A-lister too. We’re kinda hoping they don’t cop out here and go with Jack Black for the second time in the row, but we can guarantee without a doubt that he’ll get a hammy and over the top performance regardless. The guy is basically built to be another large brash villain with an ego the size of a planet, and things like the Return to Krocodile Isle animation and DKC TV show prove that he tends to steal the show whenever that’s the case.
Honestly, we wouldn’t be half-surprised if something like that was the reveal trailer. After all, the Mario Movie was revealed with a heavily Bowser focused trailer, and Jim Carrey’s Dr Robotnik was a huge selling point for the Sonic the Hedgehog films as well.
So, we could genuinely see the pattern repeat here as well. After all, a K Rool focused trailer would almost certainly go viral with Nintendo fans five minutes after being posted on YouTube, and it’d drum up a ton of media coverage and fan support right out of the gate.
Still, those are just some of our predictions. For all we know, the movie could go in a completely different direction, or adapt one of the other games wholesale here. It’s Nintendo after all. They’re impossible to predict on the best of days, let alone with a single copyright notice!
Regardless, the Donkey Kong movie is now officially a thing, and will likely be revealed in the near future. So, what do you think we’ll see there? Are our predictions likely? How will Nintendo and Illumination create a Donkey Kong movie?
Leave your thoughts in the comments below, or on our Discord server today!
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