There has been no official announcement for the next Mario movie, but it looks like there is already one scheduled according to a recent leak at Universal Pictures International.
Considering the roughly $2B in box office tickets the first two Illumination Mario movies have made, we all knew a third one, of some sort, would just have to be in the works. And it now looks like it is scheduled to land around this time in 2028.
According to a release calendar put out by Universal Pictures Spain, an “UNTITLED ILLUMINATION/NINTENDO EVENT FILM” is set for release in April, 2028.
What this film actually might be is still entirely a mystery. Nintendo has more or less shot down the idea of a giant mascot party with a some kind of Super Smash Bros. Movie (as epic and perhaps likely as it seems it would be in the future). Fox McCloud and the StarFox just don’t seem like they have quite enough star power to carry an entire film, at least not yet, but there have been rumblings regarding a some kind of Donkey Kong project potentially being in the works. And if there is anyone else that might be able to pull this off, especially considering Zelda and Link are already getting the live action treatment, it might very well be Donkey and the Kongs.
Last year Nintendo and Universal Pictures registered copyright materials (via Polygon) for some kind of Donkey Kong project, but this doesn’t necessarily mean the Kongs are on the slate next. All things considered, and if all goes well with these Mario Illumination films, Donkey was bound to get the starring role at some point anyway.
Either way, Nintendo is surely more than happy to bank another billion or so at the box office, and it sounds like we will be getting an even faster turnaround this time with just 2 years in between theatrical releases – there were three years between The Super Mario Movie and this year’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Stay tuned.
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