Nintendo’s production partner seems to have leaked out the name of the Super Mario Bros. Movie sequel.
Of course, most of us in the press have been simply referring to it as Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 without knowing that that would be the name. This was based on the assumption that Nintendo and Universal may choose to stick to the most obvious name, and that they may also be using this as their placeholder.
As shared by Wario64 on Bluesky, Universal has a new press release about all their upcoming projects, for theatrical and streaming releases. Alongside projects like Megan 2.0, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, Nobody 2, and Minions, they listed Super Mario World. Shortly thereafter, the name was removed from the press release, but Wario64’s screenshot stands as evidence that it came out.
There was some speculation that the second movie would be based on Super Mario World, because of the teasers that they dropped throughout the first Super Mario Bros. Movie. There was a brief scene which showed several Yoshis being born, and the end of the film teased a green Yoshi hatching out of its egg.
Of course, Super Mario World is the fourth in the side-scrolling platformer Super Mario series that Mario is best known for. While Nintendo openly stated that they play fast and loose with any sense of continuity on purpose, this choice suggests that they’re passing over other games and their stories.
For what it’s worth, the first Super Mario Bros. Movie is itself not an accurate recreation of the story of the first Super Mario Bros. platformer game at all. It had small references to different games and spinoffs as well, so we imagine that Nintendo, Universal, and Illumination would take further liberties with Super Mario World’s storyline.
Lest we forget, Nintendo planned this sequel years before, sometime close to when they started working on the first movie. So all of this was already planned for close to a decade ago, with Universal and Nintendo just hedging their bets to see how successful the movie would be before they moved forward.
The second movie is coming in April next year, so it won’t be that long before we find out more about it. And we will also find out in a matter of months if Christopher Dring’s rumor that there will be a new Switch 2 bundle releasing around the same time is also true.
