Nintendo has recently rebranded one of their subsidiaries. Previously known as Warpstar, Nintendo Stars was originally a joint venture between Nintendo and Kirby developer HAL Laboratory which was the former home of Super Smash Bros. series boss Masahiro Sakurai. Back in 2001 when it was founded, its primary purpose was to manage the Kirby franchise as it began to expand from games to anime. Their first series was “Kirby: Right Back at Ya!” which ran for 100 episodes. After the successful release of the “Super Mario Bros. Movie” in 2023, Nintendo has decided to build up its film presence.
Earlier this year, Nintendo bought out HAL Laboratory’s half of Nintendo Stars. This now makes it entirely Nintendo-owned and it seems they have big plans for the division in the future. The first two films Nintendo has in production are the “Super Mario Bros. Galaxy Movie” set to release on April 3, 2026 and the live-action Legend of Zelda film hitting theaters the following year on May 7, 2027. Beyond these, it is currently unknown what Nintendo has planned next. Besides adapting their games into movies, it seems that Nintendo Stars will manage films for all Nintendo franchises in addition to the Kirby series going forward.
Nintendo Stars is not to be confused with Nintendo Pictures, the company’s motion capture and animation studio that has previously worked on a number of CGI movies and video games.
