The blockbuster success of Nintendo’s new Super Mario Bros. Movie has likely guaranteed a galaxy of spin-offs and sequels will follow – and that’s on top of the end-credits tease already sitting at the film.
There are several moments where the Super Mario Bros. Movie seems to set up characters and plot elements for future film entries – while the lack of story in this initial movie has come under criticism.
Join us as we take a look beyond this rather safe – albeit still enjoyable – new step by Nintendo into the world of cinema, and consider where the Super Mario Bros. Movie series will most likely head next… as well as where we hope it doesn’t.
Spoiler warning: Discussion of the Super Mario Bros. Movie’s plot and ending lies below.
Yoshi
Let’s get the obvious one out the way first: Yoshi. The end of the Super Mario Bros. Movie shows a Yoshi egg hatching underneath the streets of Brooklyn. Eagle-eyed viewers will have spotted the same egg on Bowser’s table of wedding gifts towards the end of the film.
Who gave Bowser the egg? What will become of a Yoshi born underneath “real-world” New York? It seems inevitable the next time we see Mario’s world, we’ll get some of these answers.
Rosalina
Nintendo fans had suspected the series’ popular space-faring Princess might appear in the Mario movie after it was revealed the film would feature a Luma – the child-like star-shaped race that Rosalina looks after.
A further hint at Rosalina comes as Mario and Peach discuss their backgrounds, and Mario suggests they were originally from the same world as they are both appear to be human. Peach suggests otherwise, and states there are “plenty of out there”, hinting perhaps at Super Mario Galaxy’s debut of Rosalina and the Lumas.
Galaxy never explicitly confirmed a link between Peach and Rosalina, though its storybook retelling of Rosalina’s childhood hinted the two could have been related.
Donkey Kong
While Donkey Kong is already a major character in the Super Mario Bros. Movie, past reports have suggested the anti-hero ape may get an entire spin-off of his own. A larger focus on DK would also make sense, since it is set to be the second major area to open at Universal Studios Japan’s Super Nintendo World park in 2024, following the very Mario Movie-like Mushroom Kingdom.