Netflix has built up a pretty big slate with adaptations in recent years. Between The Witcher, Castlevania and Dragon's Dogma (to name a few). There were rumours for a time that they'd even take on The Legend of Zelda. Though Nintendo denied it at the time, it looks like there was truth to those reports after all.
Speaking in a wider interview with The Serf Times, this news comes from Adam Conover, and you can find the clip in question around the 39:17 minute mark. He revealed that back in 2015, his former employers CollegeHumor were working directly with Shigeru Miyamoto on a claymation Star Fox series, based on the style of Wes Anderson's stop-motion animated adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic child's novel Fantastic Mr Fox.
Despite that initial buzz (and a previous sketch in 2011) Conover claims this project was unfortunately cancelled a month later. The reason? Because Netflix had leaked their Legend of Zelda series plans, reports which former President Satoru Iwata claimed at the time was "not based on correct information".
As a result, Conover says Nintendo "freaked out" and cancelled their existing adaptation plans, including CollegeHumor's series – through no fault of their own.
Since then, Nintendo has opened themselves back up to adaptations, currently working with Illumination on a Super Mario movie, but it's a shame leaks put an end to both shows. We'll never know how either would've turned out but on paper, they could've made for two interesting projects.
Would you have been interested to watch either TV series? Let us know down below.
[source youtube.com]
Comments 82
Ohh, I wonder if this is why Netflix isn't on Switch.
Whoever leaked it back then, thank you very much.
Well ***** I would Have really enjoyed this.
That stinks. But a very Nintendo thing to do, lol.
Is there any evidence to support that this is really what happened? It really doesn't sound accurate... in fact I'd be confident that there is either another very good reason Nintendo cancelled the project which is entirely unrelated to Netflix, or indeed, the deal was actually not signed and Nintendo simply changed their mind - again, completely unrelated to Netflix.
The Netflix link really sounds like someone clutching at something to explain it.
Maybe I'm wrong, but yea, it doesn't sound right to me.
Well that was the last chance for any kind of Star Fox adaptation since it would have been developed during the hype for Zero. I don't see the franchise coming back after that backlash though. Would have loved a series in the style of that 15 minute animation they showed at E3.
Classic Nintendo throwing their toys out of the pram. This would have been during the Wii U-era too so imagine how complacement they'd be about these leaks now!
god nintendo is stupid lmao
@nocdaes Really? Totally sounds like the super paranoid, over protective, socially awkward Nintendo we all know.
Sorry for the leak but let's be honest. Leaks happen all the time nowadays and for you to cancel a project like that just because it's 'leaked' it's a very Nintendo thing to do.
Shame, both shows would have, probably, been great.
Nintendo:
Well, with star fox zero we have jim henson puppets on the characters like they’re themed after thunderbirds shows perfectly. We also made this really cool anime short movie intro that people like.
Let’s make our netflix series based on a college humor short parodying a wes anderson cartoon!
Wait... I feel we probably made the wrong choice.
They spilled the beans about us talking about a zelda show? Abort everything!
@nocdaes,
A lot of people judging things based on nothing more than speculation and rumors, stoked by YouTuber's looking fr money and subscriptions.
Netflix were probably planning a live action series at the time when Castlevania shows that an anime adaptation of the manga would have been much better. Ditto with Metroid.
Zelda is the series I'd most like to see adapted to film/TV. Would be nice to have a fantasy/adventure series to be able to watch with the kids, as Hollywood seems to be putting all its money in that genre towards the 18-rated content since Game of Thrones.
Until there's evidence supporting his claim I'm gonna remain skeptical. I bet Star Fox Zero's developmental woes and underwhelming publicity in 2015 had as much, or more, to do with it.
Leaking a major collaboration on purpose seems like a completely unnecessary breach of trust.
Wonder if Netflix's Witcher was essentially the replacement for Zelda.
Maybe they had sets being constructed and thought "Quick! Get another fantasy genre game!" xD
@tourjeff @Ajent @Rob3008 @UmbreonsPapa Or maybe Netflix and it's staff shouldn't be unprofessional and leak things out?
Nintendo seem to be very good at stopping any news leaking out about their own products in development, so yes, it's possible.
Id rather have an anime style starfox. It’s better suited for space action rather than puppets
@fafonio Same. I don't want some Basil Brush looking Starfox
That’s why people that leak info should be treat like trolls.
I feel like the biggest thing holding back Nintendo are Nintendo themselves.
That’s if this report is true obviously.
They have the potential to become a big media power house, but they don’t let people in.
Want consequences of leaked information? Well here you go! The same thing should go towards certain YouTubers who spoil games through thumbnails, because they always post leaked videos.
@Clyde_Radcliffe well, the actual 'leak' was a report from Wall Street saying that someone at Netflix said that. That's a hearsay in my view that would follow the standard response from Nintendo and Netflix : we don't make comments based on rumors.
That's all that should have been done and the projects should have continued.
To cancel something based on this weak leak is very dumb.
And no, Nintendo is not very good at keeping secrets. Just check the leaks story of Direct presentations and you'll see it.
Good. Actions have consequences. Let people on the internet who think they rule the world with their stupidity meditate on that.
If I was working on a collab and the other party broke trust and leaked it then I'd walk away too. Let's face it, neither of those projects were likely to have become mainstream successes, so the financial loss from abandoning the project is probably relatively low.
This makes no sense. Unless Netflix were working on a Zelda series with Nintendos knowledge (i.e. in the hope of them agreeing to it once they'd seen test footage), why would Nintendo 'freak' out over something they'd have full knowledge of?!
@JohnnyC It’s less “watching with” and more “reading with”, but you can probably get a good couple of weeks of bedtime reading in an all ages fantasy setting with Jeff Smith’s “Bone” series. All now in a convenient one volume edition.*
*when I say all ages, I mean about as much “all ages” as say an old rankin/bass cartoon. Characters may smoke. Characters may hit each other. There are scary looking nightmare fuel for five year olds character designs. Maybe read it over before sharing, but it is pretty dang harmless and great for all ages.
Nintendo the helicopter parent.
@tourjeff "And no, Nintendo is not very good at keeping secrets. Just check the leaks story of Direct presentations and you'll see it"
The Nintendo Direct leak stories are always wrong! I've lost track of the times people have said a Direct is coming and nothing transpires, including from apparently credible insiders.
@Roam85 Yeah, not fussed about stuff like that, so thanks for the recommendation, will have a look. Fantasy violence is ok with us, eg in Lord of the Rings, Star Wars etc. It's the gore and T&A in a lot of current big-budget fantasy series which make it harder to find time to watch, as it needs to be done after work and family commitments. First-world problems!
Nintendo likes their secrecy. You may not like it, we may not like it, but Nintendo does like it. These news should surprise no one, just disappoint, really.
Personally, I believe Nintendo sees the negativity built around hyping too much. They probably think of Metroid Prime 4 announcement as a mistake now that it went back to the drawing board. It works on complete opposite to Sony (or maybe Squarenix?) that likes to flaunt games like FF7 remake and KH3 more than half a decade before the game is done.
I think they prefer to make the game as perfect as they can get in their eyes before building hype. That's how they do those left field announcements like "LOL! New Paper Mario in 2 months! GOOO!!"
@gcunit @smashboy2000 I completely agree
The "Fantastic Mr. Starfox" bit on College Humor is pretty great. It's well made, and legitimately funny.
But I think that if the video went on for an extra minute, it would get stale. How you would make a full 30 minute skit remain entertaining is beyond me. And an entire series? No way.
@Bobb "Personally, I believe Nintendo sees the negativity built around hyping too much"
I think there was one upcoming Nintendo Direct people really hyped up and created false rumours around then they were disappointed in what was shown and it caused Nintendo's shares to crash. They definitely keep things more low key and secretive now.
@Rob3008 what’s a pram?
@JohnnyC that would be awesome, they could pal around the castle and link could have an attitude like xcuuuuuuuse me Princess
@smashboy2000 what?
@Clyde_Radcliffe I absolutely don't disagree. And my comment wasn't coming from some place of entitlement or trying to pile on silly criticism of Nintendo. It was more so the overreaction with the Star Fox series, which I would have loved to had seen (and I'm not even that big of a fan of the series). Even then, I do somewhat agree with @tourjeff. I do think a simple "we don't comment on rumors" or "no comment" would have probably sufficed.
But as you said and others, the onus is on the involved parties Netflix to have been more vigilant in keeping it hush. Netflix had to know how Nintendo operates and reacts to these kinds of things
Nintendo removed parts of Smash Bros too because info leaked before release.
@westman98 Probably an over enthusiastic Nintendo fanboy working at Netflix couldn't hold it lol.
I don't believe this is true at all
A claymation Starfox would have been great. Its a shame but I get why Nintendo pulled it.
Understandable. Things like that can impact stock trading or could violate agreements. There is a reason companies don’t hold a press conference every time they consider doing something. Like my company is super quiet about acquisitions until the dust settles because anything can happen before it does. We wait like a week after before we even update our website. It’s simple. Don’t leak stuff.
Look what we could have had!!
They were fooled by the man in a Luigi hat. Beneath the smile, he did not mess around.
Both shows cancelled because of a leak? Even for Nintendo, this sounds like a sketchy reason. There must be something more behind this.
One day there will be a star fox game that is actually animated with stop motion like the gods intended
@MatoFilipovic exactly what is going on in our minds
I think this is a silly reason why. I need more evidence for this. Also no zelda plz, unless this is going to be a serious and new story that doesn't involve BOTW.
Star Fox in a stop motion Wes Anderson style would be amazing.
I generally don't care for TV shows based on games, but I would have definitely checked that one out. It always had the vibe of a cartoon like Bucky O'Hare.
@alecseus also same
So Zelda’s not coming to Netflix? All’s well that ends well.
Excuuuuuuuuuuuuse me Netflix.
"Since then, Nintendo has opened themselves back up to adaptations, currently working with Illumination on a Super Mario movie, but it's a shame leaks put an end to both shows. We'll never know how either would've turned out but on paper, they could've made for two interesting projects."
Wow coming from a website that would happily publish anything without any concrete evidence, and on a daily basis if possible.!!!
There's gotta be something more to this story it seems incomplete, like Netflix wasn't a good partner or something prior and the leak was the straw that broke the camel's back. I'm kinda glad that Netflix wasn't able to make the Zelda series they're either hit or miss and prone to killing good shows.
@Kitoro not really since they wanted to reveal the shows themselves reason why most of us hate leakers for ruining the surprises.
Can they cancel the Mario movie that's being made by Illumination Studios? The guys that made those annoying yellow pill people shouldn't be given access to Toads.
Also, the Copyright on the image says "©CollageHumor." I find artistically placed groups of photos absolutely hilarious, but I feel like CollageHumor shouldn't be given credit for something that belongs to CollegeHumor.
Nintendo is overly cautious of adapting it franchises to Live-action or animated series/movies after the Live-action Mario movie in 1993, Nintendo/we dont want a live action Mario movie 2.0
A shame, even if I'm not a StarFox fan. I'd really like to see a Nintendo show made with claymation or stop motion, regardless of the series.
If I were to choose a series to adapt, though, I'd pick Kid Icarus.
In the words of Slippy, Pepper, and Falco: "NOOOOOOOO!!!!"
This CANNOT be the whole story. No way any company in their right mind would cancel a project over leaks. If true though, that's absolutely awful. Just watched Fantastic Mr. Fox and a Star Fox series in that style would have been perfect.
What I take from this is that when Nintendo deny rumours, they're most likely true.
@Ventilator What content are you referring to? Just curious if I have heard about this before or not.
People have to know by now that if you're doing business with Nintendo the NDAs are legit and super strict
Good, last thing we need is the “Timeline Freaks” figuring out “where the Netflix show fits.”
If this is true, this actually makes Netflix look worse than Nintendo.
This doesn't seem to be the full story regardless. Perhaps Nintendo wasn't satisfied with how well the show was going.
@Kitoro This isn't Nintendo's fault stupid!!
@Roam85 Again! This is not Nintendo's fault!!
@Knuckles Major parts of story mode in SB were removed because of the leak. It were on this site too 2-3 years ago.
Nintendo is childish. Less content for people if something is leaked. Nintendo have proven to behave like 5 year old cry babies several times,. Even then Nintendo allows more mature games than Sony.. Weird.
It was probably in the early planning stages. Because naturally things will leak in regards to live action series because of casting calls and other production ground work. But, I think a leak so early on probably made Nintendo feel like their partners or the producers at Netflix were unprofessional or didn't treat it seriously enough to keep a lid on the series. As during the earliest part of production the only people who should know about what is going on is the producers and lawyers teams so Nintendo probably just did not feel it was professional and did not feel it was a nice fit.
This is not always conspiracy or big mean Nintendo being mean. When in early production like this if stuff is leaking it is because someone highup leaked it and that can rub people the wrong way especially a company as cautious as Nintendo when it comes to how their IPs are presented.
Man... Fantastic Mr. Fox is my favorite movie. I love the style, directing and voice acting. Having Star Fox in a similar style sounds amazing. What a shame it’ll never see the light of day.
Fantastic Mr. Star Fox might have been fun. However, I may have wanted more of the anime that came with Star Fox Zero, anyway. Gotta keep stuff to yourself until its time to reveal. I can’t show off a band’s album cover until the band and label are ready to reveal it, for instance. Loose lips sink ships.
@Ventilator it was a over seven years ago, close to 8...
@knuckles ssb4 didn't have a story mode because sakurai was upset about the subspace emissary cuts scenes from brawl being on youtube
"Unfortunately, the movie scenes we worked hard to create were uploaded onto the internet, You can only truly wow a player the first time he sees [a cutscene]. I felt if players saw the cutscenes outside of the game, they would no longer serve as rewards for playing the game, so I've decided against having them."
-Sakurai https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/07/masahiro_sakurai_rules_out_story_sequences_for_super_smash_bros_on_wii_u_and_3ds
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/01/sakurai_reiterates_that_therell_be_no_subspace_emissary_style_story_in_super_smash_bros
Serious Nintendo why!!?
Im getting irritated by them lately.
I even sold my switch this week, and bought a Alienware Gaming laptop.
I will buy a switch again when more AA games get revealed for this year.
There is no logic to this at all. Makes zero sense. “It got leaked” we cancel everything.
People always say “Nintendo are aimed at kids” they got it wrong - Nintendo are run by big kids.
I hope this story is false because it’s pathetic.
Nintendo could and should be a far better and bigger company.
@Shadowmoon522 Thanks for the link, I'm familiar with both this story and the Tharja Trophy in Smash 3DS being leaked. Was just curious if they knew of a story that I missed.
@Shadowmoon522 Thank you. This is it.
It's sad that Nintendo cancels things that's leaked. It's childish of them.
Why would Nintendo cancel something just because it was leaked? That doesn't make sense. There has to be more to the story. I wonder if Netflix broke a non-disclosure agreement, in which case, Nintendo was right to break off business relations with them.
This would have turned star fox from a commander to a whiney emo. Good riddance
Leaked "plans"? You mean mentioned a Zelda series was getting made? That's like someone suggesting Breath of the Wild 2 may be in production... I know.. We better cancel the entire series.
"Rumour has it there might be a Mission Impossible 7"....
Tom: "Guys, game over. We've been rumbled. No more Mission Impossible movies!"
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