The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
Nintendo
Well, when a video game adaptation makes $1.3 billion at the box office, chances are you’re getting a sequel. There are dozens of Mario games to choose from, but Nintendo and Illumination landed on the Wii’s Super Mario Galaxy, which was released in…2007? That can’t be right. I am old.
Now, we have our first trailer for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which has a release date in April 2026. It has also revealed the voices for two core cast members of the new film. Trailer first, however, though you won’t be able to tell the voices from it, I don’t think:
The big new cast members are:
- Brie Larson as Rosalina
- Benny Safdie as Bowser Jr.
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 04: Brie Larson attends the Marvel Studios “Captain Marvel” premiere on March 04, 2019 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
Getty Images
They join the existing cast of:
- Chris Pratt as Mario
- Charlie Day as Luigi
- Anya Taylor-Joy as Peach
- Jack Black as Bowser
- Keegan-Michael Key as Toad
I did not see Seth Rogen’s Donkey Kong in the trailer this time, so perhaps he’s moved on. He wasn’t a Galaxy figure, of course.
While we don’t hear Larson in the original trailer as Rosalina, there is a short separate spot showing her voicework for the role:
Brie Larson, a documented huge Nintendo fan, making her perfect for the part, was/is the target of a widespread harassment campaign after she said the following during a press tour: “I do not need a 40-year-old white dude to tell me what didn’t work for him about a Wrinkle In Time. It wasn’t made for him.” It was a larger point about finding more diversity in film criticism, which set off a firestorm that led to an entire industry of YouTube videos trashing her, and the intense review bombing of her Marvel movie, Captain Marvel, which became the lowest audience scored MCU movie ever, and caused Rotten Tomatoes to institute a “verified rating” system to make sure people had actually seen the movie they were scoring.
After this Rosalina announcement, we are already rapidly seeing that resurface, albeit things have cooled down in recent years. Larson returned to her Captain Marvel role in The Marvels, a film that did poorly, but she was good in it. Recently, she starred in the excellent Lessons in Chemistry on Apple, and had a surprise guest part as Frankie Fak in The Bear. It’s unclear if she will appear in the next two Avengers movies, as that has not been confirmed yet. It doesn’t look like it.
She’s a fantastic choice for Rosalina, and I am actually more interested in the Benny Safdie casting, the actor turned director behind The Smashing Machine, Uncut Gems, Good Time and more, in addition to bringing shows like The Curse to life. You just don’t really think of him as someone who…would voice a character in a Super Mario blockbuster animated film. But whatever! Sounds good.
Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.