{"id":555841,"date":"2026-04-28T22:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T22:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/555841\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T22:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T22:49:12","slug":"nintendo-and-illumination-set-a-mysterious-new-animated-event-film-for-april-2028","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/555841\/","title":{"rendered":"Nintendo and Illumination set a mysterious new animated “event film” for April 2028"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has been a massive success<\/a> in spite of its so-so critical reception, and the live-action Legend of Zelda adaptation<\/a> is making good progress. But if a succession of recent reports are to be believed, there’s a busy few years ahead in the world of Nintendo films, with Universal and Illumination seemingly set to release a new animated movie in 2028<\/a>. That news comes amid suggestions a previously reported live-action Metroid might soon get the green light.<\/p>\n

First, that 2028 movie. Universal Pictures’ Spanish release calendar has just revealed an “Untitled Illumination\/Nintendo Event Film” is scheduled for April 2028. This lines up with copyright filings made last year<\/a> suggesting an animated Donkey Kong spinoff movie was real and coming in 2028.<\/p>\n

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Metroid Prime 4: Beyond trailer.Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n

Mounting evidence that Donkey Kong is the next Nintendo character to hit movie screens follows recent claims by industry insider MyTimeToShineHello<\/a> outlining a so-called “Nintendo Cinematic Universe”. This is reported to include a Star Fox<\/a> movie – perhaps with Glen Powell on board following his Super Mario Galaxy Movie cameo<\/a> – targeting a 2030 release, alongside films based on Kirby and even Luigi’s Mansion<\/a>. Furthermore, they say a Super Smash Bros. adaptation may happen a few years from now.<\/p>\n

But what of Metroid? Last December, Hollywood insider V Scooper claimed Universal was into the idea of making a live-action sci-fi horror movie<\/a> with a more family-friendly tone, which totally sounds like the right approach for a live-action adaptation of Metroid if you ask me. Fast-forward to April 2026 and V Scooper is back with an update<\/a>, saying Sony Pictures (the studio behind The Legend of Zelda film) and Universal Pictures (Illumination’s Super Mario flicks) are fighting over the Metroid rights with live-action pitches. There’s also mention of a potential Pikmin<\/a> movie Nintendo is keen on making, but it’s “been struggling to lock ideas for years” and might take a while to coalesce.<\/p>\n

While both insiders have landed several hits in the past regarding high-profile franchises, it must be noted they’ve also had misses. Then again, Hollywood studios are known for quickly picking up and dropping project ideas, especially when big franchises are involved; certain “leaks” are quite often real but based on outdated information. For now, take all this with a grain of salt until the established trades elaborate on what’s actually happening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has been a massive success in spite of its so-so critical reception, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-555841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}