Ex-Nintendo marketing lead believes Illumination used Fox McCloud in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie as an "IP landgrab" after letting Zelda slip through its fingers

A former Nintendo of America marketing lead has a "cynical theory" about why Fox McCloud appears in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.

Kit Ellis, Nintendo of America's former director of social media marketing and original content, appeared on a Mario movie sequel spoilercast with Krysta Yang, Nintendo of America's former senior manager of creator relations and original content.

In an excerpt, which you can see below, Ellis reckons that Illumination may have pitched the idea of the Star Fox hero showing up in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie as a way to call dibs on the (previously dormant) franchise in case of any outside interest – especially with the emergence of The Legend of Zelda movie over at Sony Pictures.

A Cynical Theory About Fox McCloud in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie - YouTube

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"I have an extremely cynical theory that I'd like to throw out there," Ellis began on the Kit and Krysta YouTube channel.

"We know that this was Illumination's original idea and then Miyamoto took it back to the team and was like, 'I don't think they're gonna go for this' and then they did. I feel like Illumination is doing IP landgrabs because [the studio is] like, 'Oh, a studio got Zelda? We need to claim as much IP that might appear in a movie as possible… Maybe we'll do a movie with him later or not, but he's ours now."

In the lead-up to the film (and its surprise early unveiling of Glen Powell as Fox McCloud), it was revealed that Illumination pitched the idea of including Fox to Miyamoto.

The Mario creator then went back to Nintendo to share the concept, expecting internal pushback. To his surprise, they gave the green light – which led to one of my favorite sequences in the film: the Star Fox flashback, brought to life by Illumination's Benjamin Faure (who also worked on Jujutsu Kaisen and Chainsaw Man).

Prominent leaker NateTheHate has also recently led with the rumor that a new Star Fox game will be announced later this month.

Everything, it seems, is coming up Star Fox – but it might not be the end of Illumination's grand plans in the Mario and Nintendo universes.

For more, check out our spoiler-filled breakdown of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie ending, plus our ranking of the best Mario games.