This Thursday delivered the wild news that a new Super Mario Bros. movie is in the works. An animated flick from Illumination Entertainment (most known for the Despicable Me franchise), the film sees a host of Hollywood A-listers bringing the iconic video game characters to life. And at the top of the list is Marvel’s Chris Pratt, who will be playing the eponymous heroic plumber himself.
Following the announcement, the Guardians of the Galaxy star took to Instagram to share a video with his followers in which he reflects on how psyched he is to have landed the role of voicing Mario in the movie, which he calls a “dream come true” as he’s been a fan since childhood. Pratt even gives us a brief taste of his Mario voice by reciting the character’s famous catchphrase “It’s a-me, a-Mario”.
Not that the way he says it is exactly the voice he’ll use in the film. “That’s not the voice, you’ll have to wait for the voice,” Pratt makes clear in his video. “But we’re working really hard on it.” See the actor’s post below:
Joining Pratt in Super Mario Bros. are his LEGO Movie co-star Charlie Day as Mario’s brother Luigi and The Queen Gambit‘s Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach. Meanwhile, Jack Black is Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key voices Toad and Seth Rogen is playing Donkey Kong. The cast is rounded out by Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek, and Sebastian Maniscalco as Spike.
The last Super Mario Bros. movie was the infamous 1993 live-action effort, starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo, which is generally agreed to be one of the worst films ever made, so the only way is up for this animated take. The good news is that it’s set to arrive in theaters next year, with a release date of December 21st, 2022.