Nintendo and Illumination's upcoming Super Mario Bros. animated movie won't be here for its original 2022 release date.
The father of Mario himself, Shigeru Miyamoto, went on Twitter to confirm that the Italian plumber's animated feature film will be coming in 2023 instead. Miyamoto claims that he made the decision along with the film's co-producer, Chris Melendandri, the CEO of Illumination. The new release date for the Super Mario Bros. film is now April 28 in Japan and April 7 in North America.
Miyamoto offered his apologies to fans for the delay but promised that "it will be well worth the wait."
This is Miyamoto. 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. My deepest apologies but I promise it will be well worth the wait.
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) April 26, 2022
In Nintendo's initial announcement, the console manufacturer claimed that the Super Mario Bros. movie will be ready by December 21. However, don't be surprised if Nintendo ends up moving the film again. The ambitious animated endeavor's new release date, April 2023, puts it in the way of James Cameron's Avatar 2, which was also delayed to April 2023 from its original December premiere date. But, if not, it will be interesting to see how Super Mario Bros.'s second-ever big-screen outing fares when going up against an equally large behemoth.
Interestingly enough, Super Mario Bros. will hit theaters around the same time as another Chris Pratt-led movie, the MCU's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. movie features an ensemble cast of celebrities lending their voices to the characters. In addition to Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor Joy has signed on to voice the perpetually-kidnapped Princess Peach as Jack Black takes on the mantle of Bowser. Other notable cast members include Seth Rogan as Donkey Kong, who will reportedly get a spin-off film.
It's interesting that Nintendo is revisiting the idea of a potential blockbuster hit starring the company's longtime mascot. The original attempt, 1993's Super Mario Bros., was a poor excuse for a feature film and might have ultimately derailed Nintendo's plans of venturing into Hollywood. The good news is that Nintendo has learned its lesson. Not to mention, audiences these days are much more respective to video game adaptations, with Sonic the Hedgehog 2 pulling in nearly $300 million at the global box office after Uncharted defied poor critical reviews en route to a $226 million haul, a figure that's good enough for Sony to "confirm" a sequel.
