Nintendo’s animated Super Mario Bros. movie is delayed until next spring, still starring Chris Pratt

During a Nintendo Direct event last fall, the company announced a release date for the animated Super Mario Bros. movie that it works minions Animation studio lighting. Now the company has announced that the film will not hit theaters on December 21 as planned, but will hit theaters in spring 2023.

A tweet Credited to Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto says that after consulting co-producer Chris Meledandri, the new release dates for the Super Mario Bros. movie are April 28 in Japan and April 7 in North America. The tweet didn’t offer an explanation of how Chris Pratt will portray Mario, a title, or answer any of the other questions we had since this project was announced in 2018.

Other cast members confirmed for the film 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. Longtime Mario voice actor Chris Martinet will also be part of the film, although it’s unclear exactly how.

Miyamoto promised the film will be “worth the wait” and we only have to look at the success of the first Sonic the Hedgehog film to see how true this can be. The first film needed a three-month delay This is how animators were able to fix Sonic after viewers balked at the first trailerr, and when it came out, the film was a hit. There’s no indication of any similar problems with the Mario movie, although we still don’t know much about them, meeting reports that the delay is to “optimize family audiences” with an Easter weekend release next year. That it could possibly be synchronized with the opening of the first theme park of the US Super Nintendo World and Nintendo’s sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is just a bonus.