Universal Pictures and Illumination announced today that the sequel to The Super Mario Bros. Movie will officially be titled The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. The announcement, made at Nintendo Direct, came by way of an announcement video showing off some animation and a new title treatment for the film, which draws its name from a 2007 video game for the Wii.
Little is yet known about the plot of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. The announcement video gives no real context, apart from the revelation that Mario seems to be living comfortably in Peach’s kingdom rather than back in New York. Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, and Kevin Michael Richardson are set to reprise their roles in the sequel.
You can see the video — which briefly leads fans slightly astray with some Super Mario World music — here:
The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which released in 2023, earned $1.36 billion at the global box office, blowing away basically every record for a video game adaptation. It is one of the top ten highest-grossing animated films of all time.
In The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the two titular plumbers from Brooklyn were transported to a fantasy world, where they teamed up with Donkey Kong and battled Bowser, drawing inspiration from numerous Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. games made throughout the years, plus the old Super Mario Bros. Super Show. That suggests, despite the title, it’s unlikely The Super Mario Galaxy Movie will closely mirror the plot of the game in question.
That said, Super Mario Galaxy took the franchise to outer space (as the name suggests). New locations were full of surprises, including relatively intuitive challenges like changes to how gravity works on different worlds. One assumes those gravity changes will provide animators plenty of opportunity to show off with scenes different from anything audiences saw in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Upon its release, Super Mario Galaxy drew critical and commercial success, becoming Nintendo’s first title to win the BAFTA Award for Best Game.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie will rocket into theaters on April 3, 2026. Nintendo’s cinematic universe will also expand in 2027 with a Legend of Zelda movie coming from Sony Pictures.
