Earlier today, the members of Resetera discovered a new copyright record in the US Copyright public records for an Untitled Donkey Kong Project by Universal Pictures. While not much is currently known about this “motion picture” project, there are a few points that we can gather from the public record, as well as some low-hanging fruit in terms of what to expect from a new DK flick.
What do we know about an Untitled Donkey Kong Project?
First off, as expected, the second party is Nintendo Studios LLC, which is a joint venture between Shigeru Miyamoto, The Walt Disney Studios, Universal Pictures, and Toho. It was founded in 2023 after the success of The Super Mario Bros Movie as a way to produce films and shows based on Miyamoto’s works. In addition, Nintendo is one of the parent companies in this venture.
Some additional details I noticed on the record are that this was executed this past May and recorded on June 6th, 2025. It’s likely a coincidence, though, that it was recorded the day after the release of the Nintendo Switch 2.
The Super Mario Bros Movie was a huge hit in 2023, and a sequel was immediately greenlit, which currently has no title. It’ll be produced by Illumination, which handled the first film and is a division of Universal Pictures as well. Interestingly, NBCUniversal accidentally potentially leaked (and revoked) the name to be Super Mario World on May 13th, 2025, directly between the two execution dates for the Untitled Donkey Kong Project (May 9th and May 27th). It may just be a coincidence as well, though.
Back in April 2023, Seth Rogan, who voices the movie version of Donkey Kong, talked about the potential for a spin-off focusing on Donkey Kong Country. With the recent addition of the Donkey Kong Country section at the Universal Studios theme park and the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 title, Donkey Kong Bananza, Nintendo really has bananas and ground pounds on the brain right now.
Since we don’t have much to go on yet, we just don’t know what to expect. My best theory is that this will be a spin-off from the movie universe. It’s possible that whatever new storylines and characters we’ll meet in Donkey Kong Bananza may play a part in this motion picture, whatever it may be. But that’s just conjecture.
You can check out the full public record of the Untitled Donkey Kong Project on the Copyright Office website. If you’re going in expecting much more than I already said here, you may be disappointed. However, it’s now something worth keeping on our radars.
Donkey Kong Bananza is coming out on July 17th, just four days from now, for the Nintendo Switch 2. The Untitled Donkey Kong Project, obviously, has no release date.
If you’re a fan of the house that Donkey Kong and Mario built, there are a ton of games to expect for the Nintendo Switch 2, including Splatoon Raiders.
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