Mario Movie Fan Theory Explains How Original Voice Actor May Reprise Role

With the announcement by Nintendo of the official casting of its upcoming Illumination-produced Mario movie, some character choices proved controversial for fans.

Actor Chris Pratt was billed as Mario in the film. And while the decision did have its fans, others criticized the move for not simply enlisting the longtime voice actor from the videogame, Charles Martinet, among other complaints.

However, according to an interesting fan theory by the popular YouTube personality Andre “Black Nerd” Meadows, fans may be able to have their mushroom and eat it, too.

In his YouTube video leveling predictions at what may be in store in the movie, Meadows puts forth the fairly plausible guess that there are, in fact, two Marios in the movie: an elder Mario and his descendant, a younger Mario.

The claim is based on the simple fact that both Cranky Kong (Fred Armisen) and Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen) appear as characters. According to extended lore of the games, the former elder ape is actually the original character from the arcade, with the younger Kong being his descendent.

“What if the Mario that we are following in the story is going on his first adventure in the Mushroom Kingdom? But there maybe is a father or grandfather, an elder figure, an elder Mario who had his adventures, like say with Donkey Kong. And the reason why I thought that is because of Cranky Kong. If you remember from the Donkey Kong Country games, Cranky Kong is supposed to be the original Donkey Kong from the original arcade game. So the fact that they have Cranky Kong in this movie makes me go, what if Cranky Kong is the older Donkey Kong in this movie as well who went up against an older Mario? And that older Mario that Cranky Kong went up against might happen to be voiced by Charles Martinet?”

If you think that sounds like a far-fetched premise, consider the fact that Martinet is officially billed to appear in the movie in an as-of-yet unannounced role.

If this theory holds true, it’d be nice to perhaps get Donkey Kong’s Pauline back into the spotlight maybe playing the younger Mario’s mom or grandma, though the character is notably absent from any announcements so far.

The Mario movie is set to release sometime during the holiday season of 2022.