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Nintendo and Illumination have announced a delay to their upcoming animated Super Mario Bros movie, originally expected this Holiday.
In a tweet posted to Nintendo’s US and Japanese accounts, Shigeru Miyamoto himself apologised to fans while breaking the news. “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.”
Reports that Nintendo & Minions studio Illumination were working on a Super Mario Bros movie first arose in 2017. However, it would take until September of last year before we heard of casting on the project. Series head Shigeru Miyamoto himself would reveal the stars attached to the film during a Nintendo Direct broadcast.
These names famously included Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Peach and Jack Black as Bowser. There’s also Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, who may already be in-line for the series’ first spinoff. Longtime rivals Mario and Sonic will now seemingly be taking their beef to the box office, with the second Sonic the Hedgehog movie nabbing the most successful opening for a videogame-to-film adaptation of all time earlier this month.
Technically, there’s no officially announced UK release date for the Super Mario Bros movie just yet. But we’d be very surprised if it wasn’t close to the US release, therefore don’t expect it to arrive before Spring 2023.
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
