An iconic Nintendo character is ready to fly into “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” and fans suspect the news is setting up a movie on a beloved video game series.

Fox McCloud, the pilot protagonist in the Star Fox games, will “rock and roll” in the upcoming sequel to 2023’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” per a surprise announcement on Thursday.

While it remains unclear who will voice Fox in the new film, the news led fans on social media to speculate that studios Illumination and Nintendo were setting up a Nintendo cinematic universe and an “Avengers-style crossover” movie based on the popular Super Smash Bros. fighting games.

Fox’s addition to “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” arrives after fans spotted Pikmin, the plant-like creatures from the games of the same name, and R.O.B., Nintendo’s robotic accessory from the ’80s, in a teaser trailer for the film last week.

Like Fox, Pikmin and R.O.B. appear in the Super Smash Bros. games.

As the “Super Mario” movie franchise expands, it’s unclear how iconic Super Smash Bros. characters from third-party video game makers — like Street Fighter’s Ryu or Final Fantasy’s Cloud — could boot up in the cinematic universe.

Konami, for example, holds the rights to Metal Gear’s Solid Snake while the character Sonic the Hedgehog — himself a star of a hit movie franchise distributed by Paramount Pictures — is owned by Sega.

Back in 2024, “Sonic the Hedgehog” movie star Ben Schwartz predicted that video game fans were “getting closer” to a Super Smash Bros. movie.

While he said it’d be “bananas” to see Super Smash Bros. characters duke it out on the big screen, he told Variety at the time that it’d take “so many different studios being kind to each other” to set up the cinematic battlefield.

Following next week’s release of “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” Nintendo fans are looking forward to the live-action film adaptation of “The Legend of Zelda” series, which is set to hit theaters in May 2027.

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