Is there going to be a Super Mario Bros. Movie 2?
Almost a month after it arrived, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is still hitting the headlines around the world as it continues to break box office milestones, and it's certainly on track to be one of the biggest new movies to release this year.
Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, the film brought Nintendo's mascot and co. to the big screen in a new animated adventure from Illumination, the creative minds behind the Despicable Me, Minions, and Sing franchises.
In What To Watch's Super Mario Bros. Movie review, we said the film "introduced us to a world that definitely has the potential to build into a bigger and better second outing". But is a new Mario movie on the cards? Here's everything we've heard about the Mario movie sequel so far...
So, will there be Super Mario Bros. Movie 2? Is a Mario movie sequel on the cards?
At the time of writing, we don't know for certain whether The Super Mario Bros. Movie will be getting a sequel. That being said, it seems highly likely that we'll see another Mario movie, for multiple reasons.
First and foremost, the film has been a huge commercial success. At the time of writing, The Super Mario Bros. Movie has already raked in over $1 billion worldwide at the box office (figure from BoxOfficeMojo) since its release in April.
There's also the fact that the film's post-credits scene certainly teases more from the franchise (Consider this a spoiler warning, if you've not already seen the Mario Bros. Movie already!).
At the very end of the credits, a white egg with green spots could be seen cracking open in the New York City sewer system, which Mario fans will know means that Yoshi, Mario's trusty dinosaur pal has hatched. That all but confirms Mario and Luigi will be setting off on another adventure, right?!
Temper your expectations just a little, though, as Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri was keeping quiet about the potential for a second Mario movie. In an interview with Bloomberg, when asked about the potential for a sequel or spin-off, Meledandri said: "I’m not allowed to talk about that right now. Clearly, I’ll continue to work with them on the board level and we definitely hope to do more things together."
Mario Movie sequel rumors: What could The Super Mario Bros Movie 2 be about?
Super Mario Bros. Movie star Charlie Day has revealed he's really keen for an adaptation of the GameCube game, Luigi's Mansion, which would put Mario's cowardly brother front-and-center as he battled ghosts to save his fellow plumber (via ComicBook.com), should Illumination go down that route.
If a straight sequel does indeed go ahead, the voice of Bowser himself, Jack Black, has already pitched who the next villain that the Bros. do battle with should be, and who should play him.
Speaking to GameSpot, Black revealed that he's not completely certain Bowser will be back (even though his song "Peaches" is definitely one of the film's stand-out moments), but when GameSpot pitched that the movie could get an even bigger and badder foe in for the sequel, he pitched his own idea straight away.
"You know, what if there is a more powerful, more evil villain? Then I may need to be turned to help Mario and the rest to defend our universe against some other unseen force of evil. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Wario. Pedro Pascal is Wario", Black said.
Aside from these rumors, there's also been (unverified!) claims that Nintendo could be interested in developing movies for some of their other properties, be that a Legend of Zelda movie or a huge Avengers-style Nintendo crossover event in the form of a Super Smash Bros. movie.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is currently in theaters.
