The Super Mario Bros Movie has changed the Donkey Kong family tree

The Super Mario Bros Movie seems to have altered the Donkey Kong timeline and revealed that Cranky Kong is now Donkey Kong's father, not his grandfather.

On what looks like a Japanese promotional website for the upcoming movie (via Resetera), we get a character description for Donkey Kong. The description reads: "The successor and son of Cranky Kong, who leads the Jungle Kingdom and the Kong Army. He's a very powerful warrior, but he's also a little childish."

What's got fans scratching their heads is the fact that The Super Mario Bros Movie claims Donkey Kong is Cranky Kong's son. A quick look at the Donkey Kong Wiki reveals that usually Donkey Kong is labeled as Cranky Kong's grandson with Diddy Kong being Cranky's great-grandson.

As pointed out by a fan on Twitter, it seems Nintendo/Illumination has decided to erase Donkey Kong Jr. (who was previously thought of as Cranky's son and Donkey Kong's dad) from the Donkey Kong timeline, at least for the movie.

I see they're retconning the Rare era lore of modern DK being the grandson of Cranky and son of Jr. Makes me wonder if they're gonna show DK as Jr. at some point, maybe if DK gets his own spin off. https://t.co/dChKhQBT95March 28, 2023

You can't blame the studio really, considering the DK timeline is unexpectedly confusing with so many different versions of the barrel-throwing gorilla. At least now we know for sure that Cranky Kong is set to make more than a cameo in the upcoming movie. The father/grandfather figure to Seth Rogen's Donkey Kong will be voiced by actor Fred Armisen - who we recently saw as Uncle Fester in Netflix's Wednesday series.

Perhaps this is the start of Nintendo making Donkey Kong a more prominent figure again. We know that Super Nintendo World will soon be getting a Donkey Kong area at the amusement park, which is set to make the attraction 70% bigger. Not only this but last year it was spotted that a new Donkey Kong trademark was filed, perhaps suggesting a new DK game was in the works - which lines up with the previously rumored new Donkey Kong game from the Super Mario Odyssey team.

We'll have to wait and see if we get a new Donkey Kong game but to find out what's definitely on the way, take a look at our upcoming Switch games list.

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After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training. My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.