In celebration of Mario Day, Nintendo has officially announced the sequel to The Super Mario Bros. Movie. While we figured this would be the case given the commercial success of the first film, now it is officially confirmed.
Illumination Entertainment is once again working with Nintendo on the sequel, which will be released in theaters on April 3, 2026, in the United States and other markets, and throughout the month of April in other territories.
Directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, who helmed the first movie, are back as well. In a pre-recorded video released today, Illumination's Chris Meledandri CEO revealed that the team is storyboarding scenes and developing set designs for new environments.
"We start animation soon," Meledandri said. "And rest assured we will be obsessing over every detail to get it just right."
While plot details remain under wraps, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto teased, "We're thinking about broadening Mario's world further, and it'll have a bright and fun story."
As the film is still early in production, it'll probably be quite a while until we learn more. But now we can mark our calendars for the highly anticipated return to Mushroom Kingdon, and perhaps beyond!
The Super Mario Bros. Movie was released in theaters in April 2023. Inspired by the beloved video game franchise from Nintendo, it followed Italian-American brothers Mario and Luigi on a wild journey to help save the Mushroom Kingdom from the threat of the evil King Bowser.
The film starred Chris Pratt (Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy) as the voice of Mario. While his casting was met with a bit of skepticism early on, he ultimately did a fine job with the voice. Alongside him was Charlie Day (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) as Mario's younger brother, Luigi, and Anya Taylor-Joy (The Queen's Gambit) as Princess Peach. The incredibly talented Jack Black perfectly voiced Bowser, King of the Koopas. The cast also starred Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, and Sebastian Maniscalco as Spike.
Casting details have not been announced, but we can assume most of the original cast will be returning for the sequel. But as the universe of Mario is large, expect a few newcomers as well! The original film featured a brief post-credits scene that teased the appearance of Yoshi in future movies.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie wasn't very well-received by critics, but it resonated with general audiences and fans of the video game franchise. The film ultimately finished with a global box office haul of over $1.3 billion and broke the record for the biggest worldwide opening weekend for an animated film and the first film based on a video game to gross over $1 billion.