John Cena, former WWE champion, is allegedly a huge fan of the Metroid franchise and asked Nintendo for a new 2D Metroid game in 2017.
As spotted by VGC, Giant Bomb’s Dan Ryckert, who formerly worked for World Wrestling Entertainment, claimed on Twitter that the wrestler turned actor repeatedly asked Nintendo reps for a new game in the Metroid franchise at a 2017 photo shoot promoting the upcoming release of the Nintendo Switch.
Ryckert wrote “During this photo shoot in 2017, Cena repeatedly told the Nintendo reps how much he wanted a new 2D Metroid.” Cena’s wish came true in 2021 when Nintendo released Metroid Dread, a game which was previously canceled sometime in the late 2000s.
The tweet goes on to say that “When Metroid Dread came out years later, he was sent a copy. Cena’s people sent an email back saying ‘John loves it.’” Cena wasn’t the only fan of the game as Metroid Dread quickly became the franchise’s best-selling title.
Krysta Yang, a former employee of Nintendo of America, who was present at the photoshoot, confirmed the story. In her own tweet, which shows a picture of herself with Cena, Yang wrote, “He did say how much of a Metroid fan he was. He’s a really nice guy!”
The photoshoot was part of a campaign to promote the hybrid console in the run-up to its launch, depicting people playing the Switch in unlikely locations. Another Metroid title came out later that year, Metroid: Samus Returns, on the 3DS and received mostly good reviews. This release is a remake of the 1991 GameBoy title Metroid II: Return Of Samus.
After this game received a positive reception, the team, including producer Yoshio Sakamoto, returned to the development of Metroid Dread, now being created for Nintendo’s latest console rather than the Nintendo DS for which it was originally developed.
A fourth game in the Metroid Prime series was also announced in 2017. However, footage is yet to be seen, and the game has since changed development studios.
Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.
