While Nintendo has been rather protective of its franchises in the past, the house of Mario is warming up to the idea of producing movies based on its iconic stable of characters.

In an interview with Fortune, legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto revealed that while the the company has been given many opportunities to enter the film business in the past, it's been reluctant to pursue such an endeavor.

"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 said. "I’ve always felt video games, being an interactive medium, and movies, being a passive medium, mean the two are quite different."



However, that sentiment is changing, as the company evolves and expands its reach within the world of entertainment. "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," he added.

Nintendo isn't a complete stranger to the film business, as a Mario Bros. movie debuted in the early 90s, and just last year Miyamoto released a batch of Pikmin short films. There's also been reports of a Netflix live-action Zelda series, which the company has since denied.