Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. animated film will not be released in 2022, as previously announced. The Mario film will now be released next spring, according to Nintendo and Illumination.
Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario and game designer, made the announcement via Nintendo of America’s Twitter account. Miyamoto stated that he and his co-producer, Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri, decided to postpone their Mario feature.
“After consulting with Chris-san, my partner at Illumination on the Super Mario Bros. film, we decided to move the global release to Spring 2023–April 28 in Japan and April 7 in North America,” Miyamoto said. “My deepest apologies but I promise it will be well worth the wait.”
The Super Mario Bros. movie was set to hit theatres on December 21. Its new release date of April 2023 puts it ahead of another widely anticipated film, James Cameron’s Avatar 2, which is set to hit theatres on December 16. Mario fans looking for cinematic Super Mario Bros. entertainment will have to wait until next spring to watch the existing live-action Super Mario Bros. film or Nintendo’s 1986 anime.
In 2018, Nintendo and Illumination, the studio behind Minions and Despicable Me, announced intentions to develop an animated Mario film.
Chris Pratt plays Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy plays Princess Peach, and Jack Black plays Bowser in the film, which has yet to be given an official title. Luigi is played by Charlie Day, Toad is played by Keegan-Michael Key, Donkey Kong is played by Seth Rogan, Kamek is played by Kevin Michael Richardson, Cranky Kong is played by Fred Armisen, and Spike is played by Sebastian Maniscalco. Matthew Fogel (Minions: The Rise of Gru) wrote the script, and Michael Jelenic (Teen Titans Go!) and Aaron Horvath (Teen Titans Go! To the Movies) co-directed the film.