The inclusion of the character Pauline was accidentally leaked through a piece of thumbnail artwork on Nintendo of Korea's website shortly after the game's announcement, but was quickly removed. Her inclusion would later be confirmed in a dedicated Nintendo Direct aired on June 18, 2025, where it was revealed that she was Spoiler:the true identity of the character Odd Rock.

At one point, Nintendo approached Vicarious Visions about developing a new game in the Donkey Kong series for the Nintendo Switch, initially reported by fansite DK Vine and expanded upon by video game journalist Liam Robertson. The title was intended to be a 3D platformer with an emphasis on movement, with a major mechanic being the ability to grind on vines. According to Robertson, Vicarious Visions worked on the early stages of the project for only six months before it was cancelled in 2016, as their parent company Activision Blizzard shifted more focus towards the Call of Duty series. Reportedly, this was "the last straw" for Vicarious Visions founders Karthik and Guha Bala, who left the studio that year to form Velan Studios, a company that would later develop Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit for Nintendo, while Vicarious Visions would be folded into Activision Blizzard in 2021. That same year, rumors began to circulate that a new Donkey Kong game was being developed in-house by Nintendo EPD, who had previously developed Super Mario Odyssey, and would ultimately turn out to be true in 2025, when Donkey Kong Bananza was officially revealed for the Nintendo Switch 2.