I loved The Super Mario Bros. Movie (even when the critics didn't). And, as a Nintendo fanboy for life, I'd love to see the company's other franchises make it to the big screen.
I've already written about what I'd love to see if they ever made The Legend of Zelda movie, and now, I want to talk about my other favorite, Metroid.
Now, I'm certainly not the first person to think of a Metroid movie; Brie Larson said she'd love to play Samus. Neill Blomkamp, director of District 9, he wants to direct a Metroid movie. All I have to say is, not so fast. Before we sequence break Metroid right to the big screen, I have some major concerns that I want to discuss today.
Metroid Is A Super Important Franchise, But It's Never Been A Big Seller
The original Super Mario Bros. came home to American households on October 18th, 1985. The original The Legend of Zelda arrived on August 22nd, 1987. Do you know when the first Metroid debuted? August 15th, 1987. That’s right. Metroid came out BEFORE Zelda on the NES, stateside. And yet, everybody loves the first two, but nobody loves Metroid.
Okay, that’s not fair, as lots of people love it. Hell, there is even an entire subgenre of gaming centered around it called “Metroidvanias,” which is a portmanteau of this game and Castlevania. It’s a subgenre that’s all about getting lost, and finding items that help you progress through various sections of the game. That said, as important as it is to gaming as a whole, it has never, in its entire history, been a big seller.
Case in point: The highest selling Super Mario game (Not counting Super Mario Kart 8: Deluxe, of course) would be the original, 1985 game, which sold a whopping 40 million copies. The highest selling Zelda game (at this time) is Breath of the Wild, at 29 million copies sold. The highest selling Metroid game? Dread, at (get this), somewhere around 3 million copies. Now, that’s a big deal. For Metroid.
But, it pales in comparison to other Nintendo series that haven’t been around nearly as long as, such as Kirby (which sold over 6.46 million copies with Kirby and the Forgotten Land), Pokemon (a seismic 31.38 million copies with Red and Blue), and Animal Crossing (a staggering 42.2 million copies with New Horizons).
In that way, it doesn’t really even make sense, financially, for Nintendo to pursue a Metroid movie, when they could make more money on something else instead. Plus, it's odd in that it doesn’t really sell well in Japan. It sells more in the West, and why would the company even want to make a movie that would likely flop in its home country? And, I have other concerns…
It Would Be Hard To Make It Appeal To A Family Audience
I don’t care if a Metroid movie became the best video game movie of all time, right up there with Detective Pikachu, it would still be a hard sell with families. That’s not to say that Nintendo should purely focus on a family audience when/if they decide to collaborate with studios and make other movies. But, given its track record of being a (mostly) family friendly company, I’d wager that they’d likely want to have their movies appeal to as broad an audience as possible, and the best way to do that is for them to make more family-friendly movies with bright colors and fun designs.
This is NOT that franchise. Metroid is all about isolation and getting lost. It’s about being trapped somewhere until you find the item you need, and then opening up bigger areas of the map. I mean, golly, the series has been deeply inspired by the heavily R-rated Alien movies, right down to a female main protagonist in Samus, and even one of its most famous enemies – Ridley – being an homage to Ridley Scott.
Now, that’s not to say that if there were a Metroid movie ever made, that it would have to be rated-R, as the highest rating the games have ever gotten is T for Teen. Hell, my son, who is 6, is an avid player, since I got him started on Metroid Dread (he beat it, by the way, and even calls Raven Beak “easy”).
That said, the dank environments, scary enemies, and questionable storyline (Because, let’s be real. Samus is kind of committing genocide by eradicating the Metroid species.) all lend themselves to not being family friendly. So, while I would certainly take my kids to see a Metroid movie, I don’t think most families would.
Even The Game Series Itself Has Proven That Being More Story-Based Isn't A Great Idea
Lastly, I don’t even think the series would be great if it had a whole story supporting it. Let me explain. Yes, the Metroid Prime games have done a pretty good job of creating compelling narratives, but, it wasn’t until quite recently that the Metroid Prime games were even a part of the main series, as they were once considered side stories rather than canon.
They were always meant to take place between the events of the first NES game, and the Game Boy title, Metroid II: Return of Samus, but it wasn’t until the remake of that title that the Metroid Prime games were actually retconned to be canon in the main series.
Even so, the one game that dealt specifically with story elements was Metroid: Other M, and that is universally considered to be one of the very worst in the entire series, by the fans. No, these titles usually work best when Samus says more through her actions rather than her words. Case in point, in Dread, Samus literally only has one line of dialogue in the entire game, and it’s spoken in Chozo. And, guess what, it’s one of the most badass scenes in the entire series.
Remember, this is not like other franchises. The story is told through exploring the environment, making it more like Alien than ever. So, really, just think. Do we honestly want a Metroid movie with multiple characters when Other M proved that maybe that wasn’t such a good idea?
Because Metroid HAS to take place in space. It HAS to be a sci-fi movie. When even Disney can’t capitalize on sci-fi, what chance does Nintendo have with their super niche sci-fi franchise that can’t even sell more than 3 million copies?
But, what do you think? Honestly, it pained me to write this article since I LOVE Metroid. I love the series even more than Mario and Zelda. But, I’m just being realistic here. For more news on all things Nintendo-adjacent, be sure to swing around here often.
