Subspace Emissary (2025 film)

Subspace Emissary is an upcoming action adventure film released by Lionsgate and distributed by Columbia Pictures. It is based on the Super Smash Bros series of games released by Nintendo.It is slated to be released in 2025. The film takes elements mostly from Super Smash Bros Brawl (2008).

Plot

Samus Aran, Solid Snake, Ike Greil and other heroes must team up to stop a dark witch from enslaving Earth. Along the way the heroes learn things about themselves and each other.

Cast

Scarlet Johannsen as Samus Aran

Brad Pitt as Solid Snake

Chris Evans as Ike Griel

Brandon Routh as Marth

Zooey Danschel as Lucina

Henry Cavill as Chrom

Brie Larson as Rosalina

Development

On March 22, 2021 it was announced that Nintendo was in production of a live action film based on their Super Smash Brothers franchise. On April 12, Nintendo announced that they were in search of a director to direct the film. Many people were considered and Zack Snyder was chosen for the film.

Criticism and Backlash

Almost immediately there was outrage from fans. Many were upset that Zack Snyder was chosen to direct and took to social media and internet forums to express their concern. They were also upset that many iconic characters from the franchise would not make an appearance. Nintendo responded to the criticism by saying that they wanted to take the film in a dark and gritty direction and that Zack Snyder was their first choice to direct.

Zack Snyder's Vision

Zack Snyder said in an interview: "I honestly did not expect to be chosen to direct. I was quite surprised when an official from Nintendo approached me and said 'We want you to direct this film.' I was like 'thank you for the opportunity.'" Zack Snyder admitted that he was not familiar with the Super Smash Brothers Franchise and had not even heard of it. "Before Nintendo told me I was going to direct this film, I had never even heard of this game. I'm familiar with Nintendo but I had never seen Super Smash Bros. It never really intrigued me. It was very childish in my opinion."

Zack Snyder started playing the games in the series to get familiar and to know the series more. "My homework was essentially to play all the games in the series. It was the first time I was asked to play video games as an assignment." Snyder admitted that his favorite entry in the series was Super Smash Bros Brawl for its grittiness and dark tones. "My favorite had to be Brawl. The previous entries didn't interest me as much. Brawl was the first game in the series to actually have a story and cutscenes. That's what really sucked me in."

Snyder stated that he would base the movie on Brawl and that it would be his main source of inspiration when making the movie. "Brawl had the story and development so I decided 'Why not make the movie like this? Change a few things up, introduce new characters, change character motivations [...] We decided to go to work right away.' "

Zack Snyder stated that he favored the human characters over the more animated cartoony Nintendo characters. "I really gravitated towards characters like Samus Aran, Solid Snake and the Fire Emblem characters. They fit into my vision of what a Super Smash Bros film should be like. I decided that if we're going to be making a Smash Brothers film we're using these characters.' "

On April 25, a Screenrant article reported that the film would not be using classic Nintendo characters including Mario, Luigi, Kirby, Link, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, and Pikachu, among others. They would instead be cameos. Zack Snyder defended his decision, saying "I'm going to make this film dark and characters like Mario and Pikachu don't fit. We're cutting them out. Finding a way to make these characters fit into my vision was difficult without pissing fans of these characters off. However, I recognize that these characters are part of Nintendo's legacy so we couldn't just not include them. They'll be added in as cameos."

This decision fueled already existing controversy to the film and led to even more fan outrage. Many criticized the action of reducing Nintendo's iconic characters into cameos.

Samus Aran Rape Controversy, Sex Scene Controversy, and Rating Controversy

In May of 2021, it was revealed that an early draft of the film had the antagonist of the film raping Samus with a dildo. This was proven as false by a scriptwriter on the film. This hoax was made by detractors of the film who were pushing for it to get cancelled. In the same draft it also had a graphic sex scene between Snake and Samus and a threesome between Samus, Snake and Ike. These rumors were also proven as false. However, evidence exists that the sex scene was supposedly being considered and even made it into the final draft before being cut.

In the first poster released for the film, it showed an R rating for scenes of bloody violence, strong language, alcohol use, drug use, and graphic sex scenes. Many protested the film and pushed for it to get a PG-13 or PG rating. The posters were removed from circulation and a new one was released, showing that the film was now PG-13. According to a producer, the film had many scenes removed and its runtime reduced from 235 minutes to 190 minutes. A director's cut has not been announced.