During a Nintendo Direct event last fall, the company revealed a release date for the animated Super Mario Bros. movie that it’s making with Minions animation studio Illumination. Now the company has revealed that the movie will not hit theaters on December 21st as planned and instead will be released in the spring of 2023.

A tweet credited to Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto says that after consulting with co-producer Chris Meledandri, the new release dates for the Super Mario Bros. film are April 28th in Japan and April 7th in North America. The tweet did not offer an explanation of how Chris Pratt will portray Mario, a title, or answer any of the other questions we’ve had since this project was announced in 2018.

Other cast members who have been confirmed for the flick include Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Seth Rogan as Donkey Kong, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, and Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong. Longtime Mario voice actor Chris Martinet will also be a part of the movie, although it’s unclear exactly how.

Miyamoto promised the movie will be “well worth the wait,” and we only have to look at the success of the first Sonic the Hedgehog movie to see how true that can be. The first movie needed a three-month delay so animators could fix Sonic after viewers recoiled at the first trailer, and when it came out, the movie was a hit. There’s no indication of similar issues with the Mario movie, while we still don’t know much about it, Deadline reports that the delay is about “optimizing the family audience” with a release on Easter weekend next year. That it could potentially sync up with the opening of the first US Super Nintendo World theme park and Nintendo’s sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is just a bonus.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/25/23042068/mario-movie-nintendo-illumination-animated-cg