Wahoo! Chris Pratt, of Marvel Cinematic Universe fame, is playing Mario in the upcoming Super Mario Bros animated movie. The internet has not taken this news lying down.
It all started with the announcement, which came from a Nintendo Direct where Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto introduced the cast. First up, we have Pratt as Mario, then Anya-Taylor Joy as Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, and Jack Black as Bowser. Then, there’s comedy movie actor Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, and Keegan-Michael Key as Toad. Kevin Michael Richardson and Sebastian Maniscalco round out the voice actors, then, as Namek and Spike, respectively.
Out of all these famous Hollywood performers, it was Pratt who inspired the greatest reaction. Twitter lit up following the reveal, with many lamenting the choice of the buff Peter ‘Star-Lord’ Quill actor as our favourite plumber. A small rehabilitation of the 1993 Super Mario Bros film starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo – one of the best family movies ever made – even took place, as people realised just how good we had it in the ’90s.
Some fan-casting took place as well, for Wario and Waluigi, Mario and Luigi’s “evil” counterparts, who are conspicuously absent thus far. Check out a few noteworthy reactions to Pratt’s casting below:
BREAKING: Robert DeNiro “furious” over casting of animated ‘MARIO’ film.
“They cast Chris Pratt, an Irish bum, a bozo, as an Italian instead of me! What about Luigi, huh? We could’ve had a little Goodfellas reunion. Joe [Pesci] and I as Luigi and Mario. It’s fucking bullshit.” pic.twitter.com/8uXIMRjCPO
— Le Cinéphiles (@LeCinephiles) September 23, 2021
Leaked footage from the new Mario movie with Chris Pratt pic.twitter.com/HlYmFre2dT
— Diruku (@Dirukku) September 24, 2021
Bob Hoskins could play Starlord, but Chris Pratt could never deliver this line pic.twitter.com/1KSc873b8o
— xanathar’s gal for everything (@pearlsnapped) September 24, 2021
leaked on-set footage from the new mario movie #Mario #ChrisPratt #chrisprattmario pic.twitter.com/NjzKFxswJn
— Trell! 🌈 (@sfprTrell) September 24, 2021
I only have one actor for Wario pic.twitter.com/jbiWzhnjNP
— BUM CHILLUPS AKA SPENCER HALL (@edsbs) September 23, 2021
The perfect Mario and Luigi casting was in front of us all along. pic.twitter.com/4YGACuis8p
— Jadzia Axelrod 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ (@planetx) September 23, 2021
OMG just found this on the Nintendo website pic.twitter.com/wCQW4894z2
— Tamoor Hussain (@tamoorh) September 23, 2021
so excited for the Mario movie, it’s gonna be awesome pic.twitter.com/hu7Wgr1RRI
— danny o’dwyer (@dannyodwyer) September 23, 2021
Pratt himself made a short video to celebrate the news:
Chris Pratt talks about voicing Mario.@prattprattpratt pic.twitter.com/e6bZVLI4Yj
— chris pratt pics (@prattpictures) September 24, 2021
No official title has been specified just yet. The flick is being produced by Illumination, the studio behind The Secret Life of Pets and Despicable Me, and co-directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, from a screenplay by Matthew Fogel. It’s being produced by Shigeru and Chris Meledandri, the founder and CEO of Illumination.
In addition to the cast, we also got a release date – you can catch the new Super Mario movie in theatres December 21, 2022. For more great animation in the meantime, here are the best anime movies.