The writers for Detective Pikachu already have a pretty good idea for how they’d turn Super Smash Bros. into a cinematic universe.
Detective Pikachu just debuted last weekend, and although it only captured second place at the box office (behind Avengers: Endgame, of course), it still made quite a bundle on its opening weekend. Enough so that the writers are already thinking about their next project.
What that project is remains shrouded in secrecy, although it will most likely be another live-action Pokémon film. But what if instead of re-using all those terrifying “real-life” Pokémon models, Nintendo gave Warner Bros and company permission to make a Smash Bros. film?
There would be plenty of hardcore gamers that would want to see it, but Hollywood is after the big bucks. That only comes with characters that everybody knows about, so suddenly launching into a giant crossover movie with a bajillion Nintendo (and some non-Nintendo) characters would be too much for non-gamers to take in.
That’s why the writers for Detective Pikachu, Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit, would do what Marvel did with all their superheroes: introduce them one-by-one and then eventually build up to a giant crossover series like The Avengers.
"I think that the key to doing anything like that is to make sure that the other introductory movies are sensational,” Hernandez told Screen Rant in a recent interview. “It’d be a dream to write something like Legend of Zelda, but before you can get to that Smash Bros. stage you have to write the best damn version of The Legend of Zelda that you possibly can. And the same with Mario, the same with Kirby, the same with Star Fox."
Samit confirmed that the only reason why Endgame is such a sensation is that everyone already knows the characters from previous films and already loves them. Getting to a Smash Bros. film would require something similar.
However, it remains to be seen if Nintendo is willing to take the risk of handing their IP over to Hollywood. They haven’t exactly had a great track record.