The Super Mario Bros. Movie was a huge hit for Nintendo, raking in over $1 billion at the box office, so producing a follow-up movie was an easy decision to make. In a new video, Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto and Illumination Entertainment’s Chris Meledandri shared that the next movie is in development, with a release date set for April 3rd, 2026.
Meledandri says Illumination Studios Paris, which worked on the first film, is storyboarding the movie under the direction, once again, of Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic. He added that animation is starting soon. And after the movie’s April 3rd release in the US “and many other markets globally,” it will come to “select territories” throughout the rest of the month.
Miyamoto says that the movie will “have a bright and fun story” that expands on the world established in the first movie.
With the November announcement of a live-action Legend of Zelda film, we now have not one, but two confirmed movies in development based on major Nintendo intellectual properties. There’s not much information about the company’s theatrical plans for Link. Wes Ball, director of the Maze Runner trilogy and the upcoming Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, will helm the movie, with Avi Arad and Miyamoto producing.
Update March 10th, 2024, 10:20AM ET: Added context about the in-development Legend of Zelda film.
