Chris Pratt Talks Mario Casting, But You Can't Hear The Voice Yet

Yesterday's Nintendo Direct brought some surprising news about the upcoming Super Mario movie. While we didn't get to see a trailer or even a still from the film, Shigeru Miyamoto made a guest appearance during the Direct to announce the cast and the North American release date for the flick. Chris Pratt will lead the cast in the role of Mario, and now the actor has shared some thoughts on his casting.

After it was revealed that Pratt would play the title role, the actor took to Instagram to talk about the part and relay a story from his past. Pratt says that he used to play Super Mario Bros. in a coin-operated laundromat near his house when he was growing up. Never having any quarters of his own, he'd steal them from the wishing well to play the game.

"It just dawned on me right now: the quarter I stole out of the wishing well to play Super Mario Bros has come true that I get to be the voice of Mario," Pratt said, "But I clearly stole someone else's wish, so just waiting for that – that row of karma dominos to come crashing down on me, but as it is right now, it's a-me, a-Mario. That's not the voice, you'll have to wait to hear the voice, but we've been working hard at it, and I'm really excited to announce that I'm going to be the voice of that video game that I dreamed about playing as a kid. Dreams come true."

Along with Pratt, Nintendo announced that Anya Taylor-Joy will be performing as Peach, Charlie Day will be Luigi, and Jack Black will voice Bowser. In addition, Keegan-Michael Key will be Toad, and Seth Rogen will portray Donkey Kong. Nintendo even says that Charlet Martinet – the longtime voice actor of Mario in video games – will be in the movie with special cameos.

We also learned yesterday that the Super Mario movie – which doesn't have an official title yet – will be released in North America on December 21st, 2022. That's a long way off, so get ready to hear plenty more about this movie between now and release.