After the ‘Mario’ Movie’s Hollywood It Boy Fox McCloud Casting, We Need a ‘Smash Bros.’ Movie Immediately.
The past few days have been wild for fans of Nintendo’s Star Fox. On Thursday, a character poster confirmed that the franchise’s protagonist, Fox McCloud, will be making an appearance in next month’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
This was already a lot for fans to take in, given the character’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in one of the film’s previous trailers, which had led some to question if their eyes were deceiving them. Now we know that isn’t the case… and that the actor who is voicing him is a pretty inspired choice.
On Friday, it was officially announced that Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick, The Running Man) has been cast as Fox McCloud in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. The news was confirmed via an Instagram reel of him running around an empty theater filled with the movie’s standees, clad in an outfit that could best be described as a mix between cosplay and a disguise his character wore in Richard Linklater’s Hit Man.
This is just the latest string of projects Powell is attached to that are releasing this year, after we already got the A24 movie How To Make a Killing. He is also set to star in J.J. Abrams’ mysterious movie The Great Beyond, which is scheduled to debut in theaters this coming November.
Now that Powell has been confirmed to play Fox McCloud (a sentence I couldn’t have imagined saying mere days ago), one big question remains. Are these movies building to a Super Smash Bros. crossover event? That speculation has swirled since before the first Mario movie premiered, but with Fox being a staple of that franchise’s roster for decades, and a big star like Powell signing on to play him, it definitely feels like an eventuality.
What Is The Super Mario Galaxy Movie About?
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is an animated film based on the world of Super Mario Bros., and follows The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which was released in 2023 and earned more than $1.3 billion worldwide. Both the 2023 film and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie are produced by Chris Meledandri of Illumination and Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo. The film is co-financed by Universal Pictures and Nintendo, and will be released worldwide by Universal Pictures.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is directed by returning filmmakers Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, from a screenplay by returning screenwriter Matthew Fogel, with Brian Tyler returning to compose the score. The film stars Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Benny Safdie as Bowser Jr., Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek, and Brie Larson as Rosalina.
“There’s profound things in this movie,” Larson recently told the Seen on the Screen podcast. “That’s part of what excites me about it. The person who’s going to see some indie arthouse film is not necessarily the same person that’s going to think to go see an animated movie. Sometimes there’s overlap. But it doesn’t mean that we don’t all need these same messages. I just think it’s a wonderful thing. If you can make a movie that’s for families to enjoy in the theater together that’s really for anyone, and it has a universal message with beloved characters? I mean, come on!”
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie will be released exclusively in theaters on Wednesday, April 1st.
(featured image: Universal Pictures)
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