Shigeru Miyamoto provides Mario movie update

Shigeru Miyamoto has provided Nintendo fans with more details about the forthcoming Mario film in yesterday’s Nintendo Direct.

The film, a collaboration between Nintendo and Illumination, was first announced in 2018, but details have been comparatively scarce until Miyamoto’s announcement.

Although Miyamoto stated that he was not yet ready to share footage or images from the film, he used the Nintendo Presents to reveal the major cast members.

Chris Pratt will voice Mario, and Anya Taylor-Joy will voice Princess Peach. Charlie Day is to voice Luigi, and the trailer drew attention to the character’s famous timidity. Jack Black will play Bowser, while Keegan-Michael Key has been cast as the voice of Toad.

Miyamoto stated that, although this is a Mario movie, there will also be a big role for Donkey Kong, who will be voiced by Seth Rogan.

The movie is scheduled to release in North America on 21 December 2022

He confirmed a number of surprise voice cameos for Charles Martinet, who has voiced both Mario and Luigi in the Super Mario games since 1991, as well as Wario and Waluigi.

There will be minor roles for Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek and Sebastian Maniscalco as Spike, the foreman of the demolition site where Mario and Luigi work in the 1985 game Wrecking Crew

Today’s news also officially confirms that the film will be directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic. Matthew Fogel is writing the screenplay.

The movie is scheduled to release in North America on 21 December 2022, with release dates for Japan, Europe and other regions to be announced at a later date.

There were many other major news updates during the Nintendo Direct. Spring 2022 will see the release of Kirby and the Forgotten Land, a 3D adventure game for the iconic character. In October, there will be a big update for the Nintendo Switch Online service that will add Nintendo 64 and Sega Mega Drive games via a new subscription. There were new trailers for Bayonetta 3 and Splatoon 3, and it was confirmed that the final Smash Ultimate DLC character will be revealed during a ‘Mr Sakurai Presents’ presentation on 5 October.