Miyamoto says Nintendo is more open to movie deals

After the hilariously bad 1993 film Super Mario Bros., Nintendo pulled out of the movie market for nearly two decades. It wasn’t until Wreck-It Ralph! that we saw the return of some of Nintendo’s characters to the big screen and despite the trainwreck that is Adam Sandler’s Pixels movie, Donkey Kong makes an appearance as an homage to his 80s arcade days.

Nintendo is back in the saddle when it comes to movies it seems, which Miyamoto confirms in a recent interview with Fortune. Miyamoto says his company has always viewed gaming as an interactive medium, while movies are more passive. Despite that, the company is looking into opportunities to bring the two mediums together.

We’ve had, over the years, a number of people who have come to us and said ‘Why don’t we make a movie together—or we make a movie and you make a game and we’ll release them at the same time?’,” Miyamoto told Fortune at this year’s E3. “Because games and movies seem like similar mediums, people’s natural expectation is we want to take our games and turn them into movies. … I’ve always felt video games, being an interactive medium, and movies, being a passive medium, mean the two are quite different.

We’ve already had rumors that a Zelda live-action series is in development and rumored for Netflix of Amazon, but nothing concrete about the project to share. Despite that, Miyamoto says his company is currently looking for new ways to incorporate the entertainment aspect of Nintendo beyond video games and movies are a natural extension of that.

As we look more broadly at what is Nintendo’s role as an entertainment company, we’re starting to think more and more about how movies can fit in with that—and we’ll potentially be looking at things like movies in the future.

What do you think? Should Nintendo consider licensing its characters for TV and movies? Would you watch a series based on Metroid or Star Fox? Let us know in the comments!