A few years ago, we reported that an animation cell surfaced in the estate sale of a DiC employee, revealing a Metroid TV series was considered at one point. Notably, the cell depicted Samus as a man. Now, in an oral history of DiC’s The Legend of Zelda series, the story editor and writer of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, Reed Shelly, has revealed more. DiC had considered creating the Super Mario Bros. Power Hour, an hour-long block of animated shows based on games including Metroid, as well as Mario, Zelda, Castlevania, Double Dragon and California Games. Ultimately, only Mario and Zelda were made into shows.

We may also have an explanation for why Samus was depicted as a man. Nintendo conducted little oversight of the Zelda show beyond providing character designs and a “franchise bible”, along with copies of the first two games. Presumably, this was also the case with Metroid. Since none of the writers were themselves gamers, they did some research and then decided to take the shows elsewhere. Without the internet at the time, or playing Metroid and getting the best ending, they would not have known Samus was a woman and therefore assumed she was a man. Ah, what could have been…

Source: Polygon