Mario fans are going to have to wait a little bit longer for their cinematic Christmas present. Nintendo and Illumination have announced that the release of the CGI-animated Super Mario Bros. movie has been delayed to April 2023.
The film, which has been in production since 2018, was originally slated to come out in theaters on December 21, 2022. But on Monday night, Nintendo director and Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto and Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri, who helmed the iconic Despicable Me film series, announced on Twitter that the release date for the movie was pushed back to April 7, 2023, for North America and April 28, 2023, for Japan after consulting with each other.
Miyamoto tweeted the announcement through Nintendo of America’s official Twitter account beginning with “This is Miyamoto,” which led fans to believe that it was a joke, as there was no way he had access to the company’s Western Twitter account from Japan. Illumination, however, confirmed the delay with Meledandri’s statement.
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
— Illumination (@illumination) April 26, 2022
Neither collaborator gave a reason for delaying the Super Mario Bros. movie by nearly four months. There haven’t been any promotional posters nor trailers since it was announced on the September 2021 Nintendo Direct, when they revealed the star-studded voice cast comprising Chris Pratt as Mario, Charlie Day as Luigi, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Jack Black as Bowser, and Seth Rogan as Donkey Kong, among others, to the shock of fans.
Notably, the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t cited as the reason for the delay, which makes sense considering theaters have been opening back up without mask mandates in place. Whatever the reason, Miyamoto reassured fans that the movie “will be worth the wait.”
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