Nintendo has delayed its upcoming animated Super Mario movie starring Chris Pratt. The company announced that the film, which was originally meant to release on 21 December this year, will now only release on 7 April 2023.
The news of the delay comes from Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto who tweeted the announcement on Twitter. Miyamoto says that after consulting with Chris-san, who is from Illumination Studios, both parties have decided to delay the film’s release to April 2022.
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Illumination Studios is also the animation company that produced the Minions series. However, Nintendo is overseeing the Super Mario movie which means the film’s direction is completely determined by the video game company. Nintendo was also the party responsible for choosing the voice cast. One of which is Chris Pratt who will voice Mario himself in the project.
When the film was announced back in 2018, fans could not believe the casting decision to choose Chris Pratt as the voice of Mario. How this will turn out is still unclear. Other cast members include Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Seth Rogan as Donkey Kong, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, and Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong. Original Mario voice actor Chris Martinet is also set to appear in the film but we don’t know how just yet.
Miyamoto says the film will be well worth the wait. If the movie follows in Sonic the Hedgehog 2’s footsteps, Nintendo might just have a goldmine on its hands. Nintendo didn’t confirm why the project has been delayed from December to April next year.
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
