MEGA MAN is Heading to the Big Screen!


Recently we covered some news regarding Nintendo and their potential future movie output, whilst predicting that video game movies could become pretty popular soon (Assassin’s Creed looks cool!) – now there’s actually some concrete news on another property making the jump to the big screen, and it’s also kind of a Nintendo one.

The Tracking Board has learned that 20th Century Fox are teaming up with Chernin Entertainment – who are behind the awesome recent Planet of the Apes movies – to turn the iconic Capcom game Mega Man into a movie. How cool is that?!!?

mega man super smash bros

The project doesn’t have a writer or a director yet (so it’s still a long ways off) but it does have producers – who also did the Planet of the Apes movies. While he isn’t a straight-up Nintendo character, Mega Man has featured in dozens of Mario video games and originally debuted on the NES in the 80’s. He’s iconic in the gaming industry, no doubt, however I’m not sure if modern audiences are as familiar with him as they are with Mario or Sonic the Hedgehog (I’m part of that audience and I don’t know too much about him). This could be both a blessing and a curse; general audiences won’t immediately be jumping for joy but this gives them the chance to reinvent the character for our world today.

His origin story is very lengthy and interesting; Doctor Light built an android he named Proto Man, but it went rogue and escaped. He then created two helper robots – Rock and Roll – a lab assistant and housework specialist respectively. He also built a bunch of other robots for different purposes, with such 80’s names as Cut Man and Guts Man. However, his peer Doctor Wily grew tired of not receiving the recognition he deserved; one day he stumbled across a dying Proto Man and reprogrammed him into a police robot, Sniper Joe. Whilst working on him he discovered a way to also reprogram Light’s other robots and did so, seizing control of the city. Naturally he overlooked Rock and Roll since they were both helper robots, but Rock volunteered himself to become more than just a helper robot – he became Mega Man, and defeated Wily.

Thanks Wikipedia!

There’s a lot of classic themes in there of family, glory and jealousy, and it could evolve into a very neat blockbuster franchise. I think we’re on the cusp of a wave of video game movies, kicking off with Michael Fassbender’s Assassin’s Creed, and Mega Man could soon be another adaptation to ride that wave.

MegaManX-live-action

Hmm. I can’t put my finger on who that reminds me of…

What do you guys think? Would a Mega Man movie be awesome? Chime in down below.