Nintendo’s animated movie based on Super Mario Bros. will not reach its previously announced release date in 2022. Nintendo and Illumination now say the Mario movie will be released next spring instead.
Mario creator and game designer Shigeru Miyamoto himself announced on Twitter, through the Nintendo of America account. Miyamoto said he and his co-producer on the film, Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri, made the decision to postpone their Mario movie.
“After consulting with Chris-san, my partner at Illumination on the Super Mario Bros. movie, we decided to move the global release to the spring of April 2023-28 in Japan and April 7 in North America,” Miyamoto said. “My deepest apologies, but I promise it’s going to be worth the wait.”
The Super Mario Bros. movie was slated to hit theaters on December 21st. Its new release in April 2023 puts it off the road for another much-anticipated film, James Camerons Avatar 2which is supposed to hit theaters on December 16th. Mario fans who are looking for cinematic Super Mario Bros. content to watch will have to try the existing live-action Super Mario Bros. movies or Nintendo’s anime from 1986 until next spring.
Nintendo announced plans to make an animated Mario movie with Illumination, the studio behind it Minions and Despicable Mein 2018.
The film, which does not have an officially announced title, features the voices of Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach and Jack Black as Bowser. Rounding out the cast are Charlie Day as Luigi, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Seth Rogan as Donkey Kong, Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong and Sebastian Maniscalco as Spike. The film is written by Matthew Fogel (Minions: The The rise of Gru) and co-directed by Michael Jelenic (Teen Titans Go!) and Aaron Horvath (Teen Titans Go! In the cinema).