March 10 was Mario Day (MAR10), and Nintendo marked the occasion by announcing that a new movie about Super Mario Bros. will be released on April 3, 2026.
The upcoming film will be directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic from a script by Matthew Fogel. It will be co-financed by Universal Pictures and Nintendo and distributed theatrically worldwide by Universal. Horvath and Jelenic had co-directed the original Super Mario feature in 2023, which has since become a record-breaking billion-dollar-plus success at box offices worldwide. AMC Theaters will be bringing it back to the big screen this June 28.
The announcement of the new movie came in the form of a video in which Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto was joined by Illumination’s Chris Meledandri in breaking the news. According to Meledandri, the co-directors will be leading a team of animators who will be “busy at work storyboarding scenes and developing set designs for new environments. We start animation soon, and rest assured we’ll be obsessing over every detail to get it just right.”
Miyamoto added that “We’ll let you know the details once we’re ready to share more. This time too, the staff at Illumination and Nintendo are working together. We’re thinking about broadening Mario’s world further, and it’ll have a bright and fun story. We hope you’ll look forward to it!”
Today’s news came as a surprise, given the fact that Nintendo has been generally mum about its plans for expanding the franchise. Even some of the original cast had been kept in the dark, like Jack Black, who sang “Peaches” in the 2023 original. In December, Black was quoted in Variety as saying: “It has been radio silence…The only chatter has been coming from me, and I don’t even know if I’m allowed to chatter. I’ve been chomping at the bit to get back to business.”
Besides Black, other cast members who lent their voices to the original Super Mario Bros. Movie included Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, and Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong.
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