Previously, Nintendo revealed that Banjo-Kazooie was joining Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a new fighter. During their reveal trailer, however, fans may have noticed that King K. Rool and Donkey Kong were just lazing around together – almost like pals.

Some now speculate that Smash Bros. producer Masahiro Sakurai has been sneakily telling a story about King K. Rool all this time – through past trailers and entries of the fighting game franchise. It’s a somewhat lengthy theory, so strap in.

It all begins with King K. Rool’s trophy description in Super Smash Bros. For Wii U/3DS, which states that ‘he probably could have been Donkey Kong’s most trustworthy animal friend‘ – even though the two end up as bitter enemies during the SNES era. It even teased that King K. Rool could have a change of heart in the future, even if unlikely.

Of course, the ape and croc’s rivalry remained active when King K. Rool finally made his debut in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for Switch, as seen below.

Then, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate started introducing all-new DLC characters. The first of these was Joker from Persona 5. For those out of the loop, Joker is able to travel through the ‘Palace’ of people’s hearts and change their personality for the better. He does this by stealing precious objects that are corrupting the person – such as taking away an imaginary medal from an self-obsessed Olympian.

How does this relate to King K. Rool? During Joker’s gameplay reveal trailer (at 2:37), we actually saw Joker stealing one of King K. Rool’s most personal possessions – his tiny crown! In turn, all of his past malice and villainous intent could have been taken away by Joker – turning him into a better croc!

While all of this could be pure coincidence, it really does explain why the Kremlin ruler is just chilling out with Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong in Banjo-Kazooie’s reveal trailer. Could Sakurai and his development team have been planning this all along? We’ll let you decide for yourselves!

Many thanks to @Ethan_Mouta for pointing this awesome theory out!