The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (Spring 2026)

Dorayaki said:
Well don't think it's good news to diehard mainline fan. I know Galaxy is gold, but feels unnecessary to skip some important moments throughout the timeline. In a macro view that doesn't leave much room for a third movie?

Yes since Yoshi is confirmed seems like Mario still has to visit other kingdoms first. However not sure if it would also cover abit more places and other unused main cast.

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I suppose that one way to resolve a plot hole is if the story begins with Bowser escaping from Peach's Castle (courtesy of Kamek's assistance), while Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad are having dinner with Mario's family. When they learn of Bowser's escape (the Toad General would show up to deliver the bad news), Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad would return back to the Mushroom Kingdom, but they would come across a Yoshi Egg beforehand.
 
Dorayaki said:
Well don't think it's good news to diehard mainline fan. I know Galaxy is gold, but feels unnecessary to skip some important moments throughout the timeline. In a macro view that doesn't leave much room for a third movie?

Yes since Yoshi is confirmed seems like Mario still has to visit other kingdoms first. However not sure if it would also cover abit more places and other unused main cast.

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I'm confident they'll still have plenty of elements from other games to represent them. Not every single platforming Mario game needs an entire movie dedicated solely to adapting its specific adventure since most, when you disregard gameplay, are just the same thing with minimal thematic twists. Bowser kidnaps Peach and Mario has to rescue her. In that sense Galaxy is probably the only one that's thematically unique enough to stand on its own as a movie adaptation. Other than maybe Sunshine. They already took liberties with the SMB movie by making it a Luigi rescue instead. But I really think only dedicating full adaptations to the heaviest hitters in terms of story and spectacle is the way to go. I'm expecting Sunshine to be represented here thanks to Bowser Jr having a big role in Galaxy, so they'd need to properly introduce him and it would be strange to take nothing from the game that introduced him. TBH if the second movie is already at Galaxy's scope, imagine where they could go from there (Super Paper Mario my beloved)

In all seriousness I genuinely think sticking to the "core brand" for the entirety of the movie franchise would waste the story potential we could have if they were to look towards the RPGs. Sooner or later I feel it will become difficult to continue the movies using only material from the games that were inherently designed with story as an afterthought. Movies, unlike games, can't make up for a weak story with great gameplay. So I'd hope they'd take the Mario games that didn't put the story in the backseat more seriously. The idea of those nicher characters from the Marioverse getting to have their stories told to a broader audience is one I really hope doesn't stay out of the realm of possibility forever. The content from games that star other characters is better for spinoff movies starring those characters, and sticking to Mario vs Bowser for every single Mario movie would get old by the third or fourth one at least from the perspective of someone who has actually seen what the Mario universe is capable of beyond that (a perspective I still feel Nintendo doesn't value nearly as much as they should)
 
They have a sextillion Pokemon movies and not a single one referenced the more story heavy entries with greater stakes (the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games) I strongly doubt they'll make an exception here. Plus Sonic already has 3 movies and it's a slim chance they'll make a dedicated movie outside of the core games, even the third Sonic movie skipped Metal Sonic as a rival and went straight for Shadow. Mario is going to continue making games as time goes on, and what's probably going to happen is that they'll make movie tie-ins with those platformer releases.
 
I think there's space for deep cuts even in a film. For instance, I think at some point (in the series, not this specific film) a "inside the mind" sequence would happen, and I would love if they retooled Dream's Deep for that purpose. (Its like, one of the defining Dream Team setpieces and the game criminally underuses it.) Not everything has to be taken from the most popular entries, especially when people know superfans are looking for deep cuts.

I don't think there will ever be "release a new movie to tie into this new game" scenarios. Movie production and game production operate on different timescales, nevermind the differences in releasing movies compared to releasing films. It would be way to easy for two products to fall out of sync if they tried in one or both of content and release timing. But I do think there are so many Mario stories that they really aren't going to run out of things to adapt/reference from the main series, especially when games release faster than blockbuster films. Super Mario 3D World? Secret underground civilizations are a dime a dozen. New Super Mario Bros. U? Its a "the bad guy won at the start" story. Super Mario Bros. 2? Like I said, dream sequences are well versed territory. And Super Mario games have only gained more story elements as time has gone on, thanks to technological advancements allowing for grander cutscenes and maps. (and then we have to account for the inevitable shared universe with Donkey Kong, which will slow down the rate they use up Mario material by allowing for use of Donkey Kong material and by reducing the rate they have to produce Mario centric films.)
 
I don't see any reason to adapt existing material from prior stories when they can generate more steam coming up with new ideas.
 
You get people pointing at the screen, you draw some people into the theatre using the allure of seeing something they already like in a new way/their vague memories of this being something they like, you trick MarioWiki into giving you free PR (We have to have an article about the film, but every reference fitted in means one more article has a section about the movie), its easier to have a base than to create from scratch. Plenty of reasons, one's mileage may vary on how good they are.

Personally I'm against doing straight adaptions from one game to one film for a few reasons. There's only a finite amount of films available to work with a property before the license is inevitably lost. (It makes more sense to do straight adaptions in ongoing constantly produced media like comics or media that is cheaper to make like books.) Its easier to make more fans happy by remixing multiple things into a new thing, whereas maybe some people don't like Super Mario Galaxy and wouldn't want to pay full theater price to watch its film adaption. (You comparatively lose less in books or comics if people skip some stories.) With a straight adaption there's always a risk of doing the story worse than the original, which annoys the diehard fans an adaption is trying to court. But like, there's a point to making adaptions when one has the license for a franchise.
 
Antasma said:
I'm expecting Sunshine to be represented here thanks to Bowser Jr having a big role in Galaxy, so they'd need to properly introduce him and it would be strange to take nothing from the game that introduced him.
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>movie based on mario galaxy, likely to feature rosalina, adoptive mother of the lumas
>introducing bowser jr. with sunshine influence could mean an adaptation of the iconic "mama peach" story arc
>luigi in the last film was kidnapped and therefore would benefit from a new character arc in this film
>movie is also introducing yoshi

you know what it's time for, everyone
SMWLuigi.png
 
Salmancer said:
Personally I'm against doing straight adaptions from one game to one film for a few reasons. There's only a finite amount of films available to work with a property before the license is inevitably lost. (It makes more sense to do straight adaptions in ongoing constantly produced media like comics or media that is cheaper to make like books.) Its easier to make more fans happy by remixing multiple things into a new thing, whereas maybe some people don't like Super Mario Galaxy and wouldn't want to pay full theater price to watch its film adaption. (You comparatively lose less in books or comics if people skip some stories.) With a straight adaption there's always a risk of doing the story worse than the original, which annoys the diehard fans an adaption is trying to court. But like, there's a point to making adaptions when one has the license for a franchise.
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I don't think we have to worry about that. The first movie wasn't a straight adaptation, it was a new story remixing elements of many games to create an origin story for this new version of Mario. I expect the Galaxy movie to be the same. Galaxy elements will be a focus, a significant portion will take place in space, but it won't be a straight adaptation (Meladandri even said as much, that this would feature source material from a variety of games)
 
I do wonder how many Mario movies they plan on making.