The Super Mario Bros. Movie Sequel Will Be Called Super Mario World
Mario fans can start getting excited for their video game hero’s next cinematic adventure. After its massive $1.36 billion box office haul, it was a foregone conclusion that The Super Mario Bros. Movie would get a sequel; in fact, the follow-up was confirmed on March 10, 2024, the date which has been designated “Mario Day” because MAR10 looks like “Mario.” The announcement from Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri and Nintendo game director Shigeru Miyamoto revealed that the release date for the sequel will be April 3, 2026, the same calendar week that The Super Mario Bros. Movie hit theaters. They also teased new environments for the next film that would “[broaden] Mario’s world further.” What they didn’t reveal was the sequel’s title, which remained a mystery until this week. During Tuesday’s TV upfronts, NBCUniversal released its upcoming TV slate for NBC and streaming service Peacock; one section listed a number of big Universal movies that would exclusively stream on Peacock after their theatrical runs and VOD windows, and one of those titles was Super Mario World. NBCUniversal has since deleted the title and two others (Shrek and Minions, presumably referring to their upcoming sequels, Shrek 5 and whatever number Minions is up to now), but X account Wario64 has a screenshot of the original article:
the Mario sequel movie is titled “Super Mario World” https://t.co/wgiR9mV5yc pic.twitter.com/Z6H90Mlcze
— Wario64 (@Wario64) May 14, 2025
While no official announcement has been made since the mishap, this listing would seem to confirm the Super Mario Bros. Movie sequel’s title as Super Mario World; now that the cat is out of the bag, they should probably just announce it for some more publicity. It’s not like the title is a spoiler or anything, unless you think it’s going to follow its namesake point by point, which I doubt. Super Mario World is a good title – certainly more imaginative than The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2, which is what I expected because I have little faith in creativity nowadays. Aside from being a much loved Mario game, Super Mario World is the first in the franchise made for the Super Nintendo and the fourth in the series (unless you count Super Mario Land for Game Boy and Super Mario: The Lost Levels, an alternate Super Mario Bros. 2 which was only released in Japan for something called the Famicom Disk System; we’re going down a rabbit hole on that last one). Calling the sequel this makes it feel like the movies are making their way through the video game series, jumping from system to system with each release, at least insofar as the titles go; there were references to tons of Mario games in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, not just the NES originals. This is the advantage of having Nintendo actively involved with development: they can keep the films as close to the games as possible and do fun stuff like this, although I tend to think they’ll skip over Super Mario 64.
Super Mario World is also a neat title because it implies the things Shigeru Miyamoto and Chris Meledandri talked about in the sequel announcement from last year’s Mario Day, particularly expanding the world of the first movie. I imagine Super Mario World will take elements from many other games, as its predecessor did, but I’d be surprised if they don’t have some content specifically adapted from Super Mario World, the game, if only to make fans happy. And it will probably be good; I enjoyed The Super Mario Bros. Movie more than I thought I would, and there’s no reason to expect the quality will wane in the sequel, particularly since they have so many games to draw from over forty years. There was a clear love for the IP that is lacking in most adaptations, particularly in recent years, and when other studios inevitably try to copy what Nintendo and Illumination did with The Super Mario Bros. Movie, I hope that’s the main lesson they take.
Let us know what you think of the sequel to The Super Mario Bros. Movie being called Super Mario World in the comments!
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