The Super Mario Bros. Movie dominated the box office in 2023, racking up $1.36 billion and snagging several Oscar nominations for good measure. So naturally there’s a sequel, and Nintendo just dropped the official trailer for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, due out next spring.
(Spoilers for the 2023 film below.)
The first attempt at a Super Mario movie adaptation in 1993 was notoriously a dismal failure, although it still has its ’90s-nostalgic fans. But 2023’s Super Mario Bros. Movie won over gaming fans who were skeptical about another adaption—including Ars Senior Gaming Editor Kyle Orland. “This film version captures all the fun and vibrancy of the Mario games, with enough references to familiar characters, items, and locations to make even a die-hard Mario fan’s head spin,” he wrote in his 2023 review, adding that, despite a few flaws, the film was “everything that a 10-year-old version of me could ever have dreamed a Mario movie could be.”
The 2023 film re-introduced Mario and Luigi, two tight-knit but struggling Brooklyn plumbers, who got separated when they unexpectedly fell into the fantastical Mushroom Kingdom. Mario sought Princess Peach’s help to rescue his brother from the evil clutches of Bowser, ruler of the Dark Lands, who was keen to marry Peach and threatened to destroy the Mushroom Kingdom with a Super Star if she refused him. So Peach led Mario on a quest to recruit allies and stop Bowser for good. They succeeded, shrinking Bowser and imprisoning him in a jar. Mario and Luigi moved to the Mushroom Kingdom and continued their plumbing work there.
Nintendo officially announced The Super Mario Galaxy Movie in September with the briefest of teasers, showing a napping Mario in the Mushroom Kingdom before panning out to reveal the film’s logo. Its 2026 release just happens to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the gaming franchise.
The main voice cast is returning for the sequel: Chris Pratt as Mario, Charlie Day as Luigi, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as the anthropomorphic mushroom Toad, and Kevin Michael Richardson as Bowser’s advisor and informant Kamek. We’re also getting two new cast members: Brie Larson as Princess Rosalina, protector of the cosmos and the Lumas; and Benny Safdie as Bowser, Jr., Bowser’s son and heir to the throne. Directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic are also back, as is screenwriter Matthew Fogel.
The imprisoned Bowser features prominently in the trailer, as we see him in his mini-prison creating a painting of himself with Peach—and losing his temper when Mario dismisses it as “trash.” But that was just a momentary lapse, the “old Bowser talking,” as he continues to work through his personal demons. Then we see Mario and Peach jumping into a cosmic portal. We catch glimpses of Peach and Toad in an underwater world and a desert world and Peach showing off her fighting skills. Then Bowser Jr appears, vowing to take his father “now.”
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie hits US theaters on April 3, 2026, and will be released in Japan on April 24, 2026.
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