The Super Mario Bros Movie has changed the Donkey Kong family tree

Hope Bellingham
·2 min read
Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong
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The Super Mario Bros Movie seems to have altered the Donkey Kong timeline and revealed that Cranky Kong is now Donkey Kong's father, not his grandfather.

On what looks like a Japanese promotional website for the upcoming movie (via Resetera), we get a character description for Donkey Kong. The description reads: "The successor and son of Cranky Kong, who leads the Jungle Kingdom and the Kong Army. He's a very powerful warrior, but he's also a little childish."

What's got fans scratching their heads is the fact that The Super Mario Bros Movie claims Donkey Kong is Cranky Kong's son. A quick look at the Donkey Kong Wiki reveals that usually Donkey Kong is labeled as Cranky Kong's grandson with Diddy Kong being Cranky's great-grandson.

As pointed out by a fan on Twitter, it seems Nintendo/Illumination has decided to erase Donkey Kong Jr. (who was previously thought of as Cranky's son and Donkey Kong's dad) from the Donkey Kong timeline, at least for the movie.

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You can't blame the studio really, considering the DK timeline is unexpectedly confusing with so many different versions of the barrel-throwing gorilla. At least now we know for sure that Cranky Kong is set to make more than a cameo in the upcoming movie. The father/grandfather figure to Seth Rogen's Donkey Kong will be voiced by actor Fred Armisen - who we recently saw as Uncle Fester in Netflix's Wednesday series.

Perhaps this is the start of Nintendo making Donkey Kong a more prominent figure again. We know that Super Nintendo World will soon be getting a Donkey Kong area at the amusement park, which is set to make the attraction 70% bigger. Not only this but last year it was spotted that a new Donkey Kong trademark was filed, perhaps suggesting a new DK game was in the works - which lines up with the previously rumored new Donkey Kong game from the Super Mario Odyssey team.

We'll have to wait and see if we get a new Donkey Kong game but to find out what's definitely on the way, take a look at our upcoming Switch games list.