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It’s Nintendo’s world, and we’re just living in it, folks. After the release of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” in 2023, it’s taken a few years to truly get the ball rolling on what promises to be a proper shared universe with all these fan-favorite video game characters jockeying for position. But, if the latest reveal for the upcoming sequel and likely box office juggernaut “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” is any indication, it would appear that that day has finally arrived.
Today brings the thrilling (and somewhat unexpected) news that “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” is expanding its roster even further than we imagined. Universal Pictures and animation studio Illumination have revealed a new poster ushering in the ever-popular Fox McCloud character (aka Star Fox), every gamer’s favorite anthropomorphic fox and the main protagonist of the “Star Fox” Nintendo games dating back to 1993. To put this in layperson’s terms, this is truly A Big Deal™.
The introduction of Star Fox into “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” represents a crossover the likes of which we’ve never actually seen before, even in original Nintendo canon. Sure, countless millennials have spent hours playing as the shoot-em-up fox in many different iterations of “Super Smash Bros.,” but bumping elbows with Mario and Luigi and all the rest of our Mushroom Kingdom friends in a proper big screen adaptation? That’s nothing short of a statement of intent — we’re finally about to have a true Nintendo cinematic universe on our hands.
Nintendo
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie might be setting up an Avengers-level crossover
Universal Pictures
As we rumble towards the release of “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” the marketing is going into overdrive to sell this video game film as a genuine can’t-miss event. There were always going to be plenty of butts in seats based on the strength of the brand name alone, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to try and one-up the previous reveals of Brie Larson’s Princess Rosalina in the first official trailer and again with our first look at the lovable green dino Yoshi (Donald Glover) in the last trailer. This time, we have little choice but to look at this “Super Mario” film as more than just a mere sequel. This now appears to be setting up an “Avengers”-level crossover … assuming it isn’t one already.
“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” is bursting at the seams with new additions and returning fan-favorites, from our main duo of Mario and Luigi (Chris Pratt and Charlie Day) to Jack Black’s hopefully more mellow Bowser and his son Bowser Jr. (“The Smashing Machine” director Benny Safdie, incredibly enough) to truly under-the-radar appearances by both R.O.B. the Robot and Pikmin. Add Star Fox to the mix as a character who will undoubtedly be hopping aboard his Arwing starship to fly into action alongside everyone else in “Galaxy,” and this officially feels like brand new territory for this growing Nintendo universe.
As /Film’s Rafael Motamayor previously pointed out, all signs have been pointing towards this cinematic universe approach. Could director Wes Ball’s upcoming live-action “Legend of Zelda” film somehow be part of this, too? Does this open the door for Zelda and Link to arrive and turn this into an even more sprawling Nintendo crossover? Only time will tell.
“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” rolls into theaters April 1, 2026.
