- Primary Subject: Star Fox
- Key Update: Fox McCloud's appearance in the Super Mario Galaxy movie suggests a larger Nintendo cinematic universe and hints at a potential Star Fox comeback.
- Status: Speculation
- Last Verified: 2026-03-27
- Quick Answer: The inclusion of Fox McCloud in the Super Mario Galaxy movie sparks speculation about a potential revival of the Star Fox franchise.
The Super Mario Galaxy is all but confirmed to be the first stepping stone into an inevitable Smash Bros film. It's not an exaggeration or a wild guess, considering Fox McCloud will be making an appearance in the movie.
While the amount of screen time the leader of the Star Fox squadron will get is still unknown, it's becoming clearer that the reason Nintendo and Illumination pushed past other potential Mario adaptations, like Super Mario World or Sunshine, is to set up an interconnected world featuring multiple franchises. If you think this is just about Fox, then you must've missed the small Pikmin cameo in one of the promotional clips.
In any case, back to Star Fox, it's not a tentpole Nintendo franchise, so seeing it featured on perhaps the biggest non-gaming project from the company is exciting. I know that might strike a chord if you're over the age of 35, but let's be realistic, the series peaked with Star Fox 64, so much so that Nintendo has basically remade it twice, with a 3DS version in 2011 and Star Fox Zero in 2017 being the last two titles in the franchise, besides reviving Star Fox 2 via the Super NES Classic console.
All of that begs the question: Is Star Fox making a comeback? I sure hope so. Nintendo has a pantheon of amazing IPs it could use during the Nintendo Switch 2. Donkey Kong already got his flowers with Bananza, and I'm sure a new Zelda and Mario are being worked on quietly. Even Samus finally made her return with the release of the elusive Metroid Prime 4.
The following Nintendo Directs will definitely be interesting. It might be early days, but fans are certainly allowed to dream, especially considering the previous precedent set by the first Super Mario movie in 2023. The first film debuted a brand-new Donkey Kong look as Nintendo wanted to leave the Rare-era look behind.
A couple of years later, this version of DK made his in-game debut in both Mario Kart World and Bananza. The newer version of Fox doesn't feature a drastically different look, but it's certainly a more modernized take on the anthropomorphic space cowboy.
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