Cast revealed for Mario Movie and it’s gosh darn bananas 🍌

It didn’t matter what jaw-dropping game Nintendo revealed at last night’s Direct Presentation. Pikmin 4? Mother 3 Remastered? F-Zero Xtreme? Mario and Sonic at the Village Fete?! It wouldn’t have mattered, because nothing could have topped the sheer bizarreness, hilarity, and befuddlement of the cast reveal of the Super Mario Movie.

Since 2018 we’ve known that a Mario film has been in the works at Illumination (the creators of the annoying yellow tic-tacs, the Minions), but for years we’ve known absolutely nothing about the film or who was in it. Would it be a mostly silent film akin to the slapstick antics of Shaun the Sheep? Would it be a complete re-imagining of the series much like the bizarre and terrible 1993 Live-Action Mario movie? We simply didn’t know…until now.

While we still don’t know the exact plot details of the film, what we do now know is its cast. As revealed during last night’s Nintendo Direct presentation, the film will have quite the collection of celebrity voice talent giving life to the beloved Mario cast, and more bizarrely as confirmed by Miyamoto himself, Mario will be “talking a lot in the movie”.

The casting in question feels much like a fever dream, with Guardian of the Galaxy’s Chris Pratt of all people playing everyone’s favourite Italian plumber Mario, Always Sunny’s Charlie Day as Luigi, The Queen’s Gambit’s Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach and School of Rock’s Jack Black as the villainous Bowser.

Capping off the cast list, we got Keegan-Michael Key of Key & Peele fame giving voice to Toad, and Seth Rogan as Donkey Kong, because Seth Rogan apparently doesn’t have enough films to be in at the moment. Let’s just at least be thankful that James Cordon wasn’t on that list (although the fact we’ve yet to hear who’s playing Wario is troubling…)

While is it sad that Charles Marinet won’t be voicing the character he’s been portraying for the best part of 3 decades, he will still be making some cameo appearances in the film. We’re certainly hoping it amounts to more than just him shouting a garbled “woohoo” as a passing Cheep Cheep.

It was also reported that we’ll have Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, and Sebastien Maniscalco as Foreman Spike. Yes, Foreman Spike, as in the obscure villain from the 1985 NES game Wrecking Crew? Sure, why not?

The casting overall is bizarre to say the least, being both surprising and totally unsurprising at the same time. With Illumination behind the wheel, it’s hardly shocking that they’d turn to their reliable bucket of recent popular movie and sitcom stars to provide the voices (where Seth Rogan will forever stay and will never be allowed to leave), but all the same, Chris Pratt? Chris….Pratt? Pratt as Mario? Mario by Chris? Chris Pratt doing it’s-a-me, Jonny Karate Italian plumber spicy meatball Mario Chris Pratt?….okay?

Of course, the big question on everyone’s minds now is what on earth will his voice sound like? Will we just get a mustachioed Emmet from The Lego Movie? Will we just hear Chris Pratt doing a terribly forced Italian accent? Or will he actually provide something fresh and entertaining that we’ll find surprisingly enjoyable? The latter is not likely in the slightest, but we owe it to the universe to consider it all the same.

We have no doubt that Jack Black will be an incredibly fun Bowser, as will Charlie Day as the timid Luigi, and Seth Rogan will be….Seth Rogan I guess, but Chris Pratt is definitely the choice that has baffled the internet more than anything. We don’t know whether to be scared or….frankly more scared, but all the same, come next year, we’ll find out if we were right.

On the back of this mind-blowing casting news, the movie was also given a North America release date, which will be the 21st of December 2022. It’s going to be a surreal Christmas to put it lightly…

Of course, there’s still time for some more…unexpected casting announcements to emerge over the next year…

What do you make of this bananas casting? Are you looking forward to seeing Chris Pratt as Mario? Who would you have picked instead? Let us know in the comments!