Nintendo and Universal’s Illumination Entertainment’s upcoming film adaptation of the Super Mario Bros. series is delayed to next spring.
Instead of hitting theaters on Dec. 21 of this year, the movie will be released on April 7 in North America and a few weeks later in Japan, on April 28. This announcement came by way of a rather odd tweet from the Nintendo of America account that seems to indicate the news comes straight from Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto himself.
“This is Miyamoto. After consulting with Chris-san [Chirs Meledandri, CEO of Illumination], 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.”
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
The Illumination Twitter account released the news at the same time last night with a similar message.
“Miyamoto-san and I have been collaborating on all aspects of the Super Mario Bros. film and, together with our partners at Universal, have decided to move the global release to Spring 2023 – April 7 in North America and April 28 in Japan. We are excited to share this incredible film with you.”
As you can see, neither company lists a definitive reason for the delay, but it seems like the movie simply needed some additional time in the oven. Considering that this is Nintendo’s first significant foray into animated silver screen features and how big the Mario brand is, it makes sense to take all the time needed to make this movie the best it can be.
Reports from November of last year indicated that Nintendo was happy with the film thus far. Miyamoto reportedly even hinted that more movies based on Nintendo properties could be on the way. While waiting to see if that becomes true, check out the complete cast list for this Super Mario Bros. film.
Are you excited about this movie? Let us know in the comments below!
