Gaming Gossip - Episode 6: Mario Day recap and what we'd like from The Super Mario Bros. Movie sequel

Audio transcription

"Hello everyone and welcome to the sixth episode of our Gaming Gossip show.
As per usual, I've got my wonderful co-hosts here, Alex and Dav.
Dav is sort of hinting as to what we're going to be talking about today, as you can see by the lovely hat that he's currently sporting."

"We're going to be talking- Do you want me to do a little jump across there?
There we go, yeah.
I'm not Mario.
But, um, I just got that, silly. That's really stupid."

"But, um...
No.
That was a poor effort. Real poor effort.
I don't want to get out of the camera range.
Yes, as Alex is trying to show there, we're talking about- You can add in a little block point noise or something, can't you?
It's March- Rapha, you know that."

"Yeah, a little woo thing.
It's March 13th, which means we've just come off after March 10th, which doesn't sound very interesting as a day, admittedly.
But when you spell it out, it says M-A-R-1-0."

"So, Mario.
And it's the annual Mario day.
And to celebrate that, Nintendo had loads of different announcements in store.
Some of them were kind of expected."

"Some of them were quite- Maybe not surprising, but quite exciting.
We've got some smaller things, some bigger things, and we're going to talk about all of it today."

"So, I guess we talk about- To start with, the elephant in the room, right?
We'll get it out of the way.
We'll talk about the big one, which is the- The confirmation, more so than anything, that Nintendo and Illumination are working on a Super Mario Brothers movie sequel."

"There wasn't a whole lot to talk about in this regard, like, officially.
We know that they're working on it.
We know that it's coming out in April 2026, I believe.
So, it's still quite a while away."

"But that's about all the confirmation we got.
Granted, I say confirmation.
When a movie makes 1.3 billion dollars or whatever, with like a hundred million dollar budget, like, you know it's going to get a sequel."

"So, it wasn't exactly a surprising announcement to see that this has been confirmed.
But it's coming.
So, are we excited?
Are we looking forward to it?
Yahoo! Yes, we are. I think we are."

"I mean, you and me were at the Super Nintendo World last year, and last year was the Super Mario movie year, right?
It released in April.
I think this is going to release in April as well."

"April the 3rd, if I'm correct, for most of the territories.
2026.
2026.
But I think the interesting part, other than confirming what we already knew, is that they said, Chris Melandari from Illumination, other than confirming that it's going to be the same studio in Paris and the same directors, he confirmed that the studio is storyboarding and already creating the first new environments for animation to start very soon."

"I think that's interesting in terms of the status or the phase of the project itself.
I think that tells us that the script is done.
There's not much room for final tweaks."

"So, I don't know what you guys expect in terms of the story itself.
I think, other than an adventure, a colorful rendition, and a lot of references to the old games that we saw, and cameos, etc."

"I think it's interesting from a fan service point of view to try and guess what is this going to be about.
I think we're going to learn about Peach's origins and why was she transported to the Mushroom Kingdom when she was a kid."

"I think it's obvious Yoshi is going to be a protagonist.
What do you guys think about the events or the potential characters that we're going to see in the sequel?
Wario and Waluigi, I think are definite."

"If you don't have them, you could make them little guys that want to...
Maybe you start off with the theater pitch, the elevator pitch."

"You start off back in the human world again.
Next time, Mario and Luigi have a plumbing company rival.
They follow them into the pipes and they end up freeing Bowser."

"Something like that.
I think the way they've gone about it, you need the human characters to not just be in the Mushroom Kingdom.
They need to have their backstory set up."

"Daisy as well. How are we going to get her in?
She needs to be there, though.
She needs to be there.
I don't know.
Maybe you go with a Super Mario Odyssey vibe where there's a place near the Mushroom Kingdom that has normal people in it."

"It's also considered a bit wacky and weird.
It is interesting.
The only thing we know for certain is that Yoshi's going to be there because you don't put that little teaser at the end of the first movie."

"Nod to Godzilla.
Exactly.
Let's be real as well.
That was a terrible post-credit scene.
I waited in the cinema for that."

"Just my friend sitting in the cinema waiting for the post-credit scene.
The cinema guy specifically told us, he says, you might as well leave.
I was like, I paid my money to see this film."

"I'm going to wait for this.
I watched it and I was like, I probably should have left.
Yoshi's probably going to be there judging by that egg at the end of the first movie."

"I think Wario and Waluigi is something we would definitely see.
In my mind, I was thinking maybe a Team Rocket-esque role for them."

"Where they're just there to cause havoc.
Bowser's still the baddie, right?
But Wario and Waluigi are there just to cause havoc and cause trouble for them."

"I do like your angle though.
They need to be rooted in reality as well.
They need to have that human factor to them.
Because that's clearly the way they've taken this universe."

"Which is so different in many ways to the games.
They've actually made these characters feel real.
Which is really quite impressive.
Yeah, I don't know."

"Speaking about Bowser and the things Alex said.
Two questions.
Who would you cast as Wario if Jack Black is Bowser?
Which, he would be fantastic for Wario as well if you ask me."

"And, if Wario and Waluigi don't end up rescuing Bowser, wouldn't you say it's for the Koopalings to rescue him?
Yeah."

"Bowser Jr. as well.
And Roy, my favorite.
I'll go get Roy actually.
One second.
I'll be off for a minute as well."

"So it's you alone.
We've got a lot of Mario fans as you can tell right now in the room.
So it's just me.
I think this is going to be really..."

"Oh no, here we go.
There he is.
I'm going to have to ask you.
Where did you get Roy from?
I got Roy from Tokyo."

"I got Roy from Tokyo.
This guy was the last Roy in the Nintendo store in Tokyo.
It's like he's speaking for me now."

"Did you do the Super Nintendo World in Japan?
No.
I didn't do that because it was like a trek out and so the only thing I did this was from Akihabara I think."

"No, it is interesting the things you bring up about casting because I think what we've seen with the first movie is that they're not afraid to go A-list and that was both good and bad, right?
I think Anya Taylor-Joy is a fantastic Peach."

"I think Jack Black's a fantastic Bowser.
Chris Pratt as Mario, I think he performed better than we expected going in.
But on the other hand, I think Seth Rogen kind of missed the mark with Donkey Kong."

"I think that's fair to say.
The voices for most of it it comes across as a bit like...
Toad is fantastic though.
And the guy himself, I mean he could do like 20 characters in the movie as far as I'm concerned."

"But yeah, Donkey Kong was a transformation, right?
It was the character that was more tweaked. I mean, you said it was rooted in reality."

"Yeah, we've seen Bowser doing the wedding thing in Mario Odyssey.
Sort of the personality we saw with Bowser started back in the day with Super Mario RPG and then it kept developing."

"So I think Bowser more or less we knew would behave that way.
And Mario, the thing is he's talking all the time.
And I thought that was being taken to the games with Charles Martinet not doing the voice anymore."

"But what we are seeing with Super Mario Wonder is that Martinet is no more for a different actor to do the same voice as Martinet was doing. Which is kind of okay, so Chris Pratt is not sort of transcending the film into the games."

"Yeah, I think they handled a lot of the more quirky elements with adapted Mario quite well.
Even if there were some parts of it more movie centric should we say."

"The plot, it could have been a bit more it could have had a bit more coherence to it, right?
Less just weird jumps between different worlds just to make it so that it adapts and it hits all the bills that you want. You know the Mario Kart section."

"Great, but they kind of just shoehorned it in and it looked great, but I feel like there could have been a bit more finesse to how they did it."

"The Mario sequel, Super Mario Brothers movie sequel, whatever they're going to call it, it's already a massive title.
I've just had an idea."

"What if, what if, what if?
Is it film francy?
Is it gossip for Warwick's sake?
I've just had that. What if the entire movie is a game of Mario Party? Like you base it around like that and instead of like, you know, the plot is just basically like making a big hellish monopoly."

"So it's like what, Kamek just puts them there or something.
It's like what Borderlands did with the Tiny Tina Dragon Keep expansion."

"Where they're all just playing a game.
Oh, that is a great idea.
What are you doing here?
What are you doing?
What if, what if, there is another hint that we forgot."

"And you were mentioning the things that were like shooting like with the little star thing. I don't know the name in English for the little blue star character."

"Yeah, exactly.
It's not the same in Spanish.
I sort of understood the reference because they are meant to die.
But at the same time, I felt it was like transformed in the way you would expect them to behave."

"Why is this so anonymous and he wants to die and everyone to die and death is the best thing.
I sort of understand the obscure reference in there because they are meant to be part of a supernova, etc."

"But what I find interesting about its presence and the mention that Peach when she's looking at the stars she says there are many galaxies out there. So I think it's not just about the pipes but also and you get to see this in the sequel more so than Wario and Waluigi is Rosalina or Estella depending on your country because she became incredibly you know, it was after I think it was around the time of Frozen I think she became the princess of Nintendo for many girls and boys. At that time, that design, it wasn't the traditional princess and you can see more sort of the emo design to it and it was fantastic and I think she's going to be there and perhaps they are rivals this time around or I don't know I think she's a must more so than Wario and Waluigi I'm calling it. For the third film we're going to get the Rabbids crossover It's happening. I'm calling it."

"Alright, let's talk about some of the other things because Mario Day was more than just a movie although the movie was like the big thing to talk about so we've covered that. There was the announcement of the release dates in regard to the two upcoming games that we know are on their way. So we've got the 1000 Year Door remake I want to say. Is it a remaster or a remake?
Remake?
I think it's in between, yeah."

"It's going to be tweaked.
That's May am I right in saying?
Yes. And then the Luigi's Mansion 2 HD. Dark Moon's in there somewhere. That's coming in June I believe. So we've got, we go through this month we've got Princess Peach Showtime which is coming up very soon. You'll be able to find all of our fabulous coverage on that game relatively soon as well."

"But yes, and then April I don't think there's actually a big sort of Mario based game coming for April is there? We've got a steady month. I think there is no Nintendo game whatsoever to release in April actually."

"Very strange that. I think it's June, yeah as you said, I think it's May, June.
Very, very strange that. And then yeah, we've got the two ones that are coming up, the sort of remaster remake things, whatever you want to call them depending on where they sit, May and then June."

"And to me this is an interesting thing to bring up because it comes back to many conversations we've had on Gaming Gossip before in regards to what Nintendo's going to do later this year because we still don't know. They've been talking about 2026 with the Mario movie. We've got Lego Mario Kart sets coming in 2025 which are also announced, very exciting."

"We still don't know what they're doing at the end of this year.
We like, you know, Dav, you've mentioned it multiple times, right, that we're expecting a new 3D Mario platform and maybe even a Mario and Donkey Kong game at some point coming up or whatever."

"But they haven't confirmed either of those things in this show. So when is the next time they can confirm these things? Are we having to wait all the way for next year's Mario day for the next big announcement?
No, no, no, no."

"I think it's just a matter of the new console.
I think the new console is going to release Q1 because we were expecting to release Q4 2024. I think it's going to be Q1 2025 and I think, I still think that the new 3D Mario has to be its blockbuster, its system selling sort of title."

"I wouldn't expect them to release it on the Switch as well, but at the same time, given their last move, you know, with the delay and not like they sort of need to feed the Switch farther than we all thought at first, right?
So I think it's going to be a Switch 2 exclusive, but that would, is it going to be a launch game? Is it going to release on the Switch as well? That's the main question."

"But I think that's the reason why we didn't know about it yet. And in terms of when is it going to be announced?
Again, I think they have to say something about the new system before the, you know, for these fiscal year results. So that puts us around early April exactly to really for them to confirm that the new system is releasing this fiscal year."

"Will they mention the new game?
I think they can save that for later, perhaps E3 time for them to actually like build up the final stretch to release at the end of this year. I think that that could be the strategy, but I don't know. Do you expect it to release on the Switch as well, given the huge install base?
Or do you think it has to be exclusively a system seller for the new console?
I still think that it's going to be a hybrid game, like it's going to come to both platforms."

"I just think that when you've got 150 million units or whatever they have for the Switch out in the wild, as much as you want it to be a system seller, for a big game like a new 3D Mario platformer, I think it will come to the Switch as well."

"Maybe they'll launch it exclusively on the Switch too, and then in time it'll debut on the older platform.
That'd be weird for Nintendo thinking about it."

"We've seen it, some various other publishers and game companies do something like that. Hogwarts Legacy, for example, launches on PS5, Xbox Series X and S and PC, and then it comes to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One a little bit later and Switch later than that."

"Maybe they give it the extra time, I don't know.
But I do think it will come to the Switch at some point just because it'll sell a lot of copies. It'll sell 20, 30 million copies. That's a huge amount of money for Nintendo to rake in for the game."

"Another thing that I just thought about, we know what Nintendo is sort of laying out, right, for the foreseeable future.
We know that this year we kind of, there's some question marks, but we kind of know what they're doing. 2026 we've got the Mario movie as one of the big things to look forward to. The other big movie they have in the works is the Legend of Zelda movie."

"With Sony and Columbia, if I'm correct. Are we expecting that to debut before or after the Mario sequel?
It's a rocky project, wasn't it?
I think it was Netflix's in the past until they lost it because of a leak, if I'm correct. So it was going to be something by Netflix."

"So if we keep that in mind and the timing, we're talking about live action, correct? Yeah, the live action."

"And a movie, not a series.
So perhaps you're right. I think we still have to see because the main collapse we've seen are with Universal in both terms of the theme parks and the movies."

"So we still have to see how the timeline looks from the let's say, expanded Nintendo universe in terms of the other licenses such as Zelda for example. But it will fit there right? Like having no new Zelda game coming out in the near future. So for example going like late 2025 perhaps for the movie. It'd be a big selling driving point as well for the Switch console or the Switch successor."

"People come back to it to experience. Like what the Mario movie did for the console as well.
Drew a lot of people to the franchise and to the hardware again. So I just find it interesting though because usually with movies, it's quite a transparent business, right? Movies don't take as long to make as games for a long time, right? They're usually a couple of years, two, three years or something. Games can take five plus years at this point."

"But that doesn't change the fact that we usually hear a lot about movies quite ahead of time.
We hear casting information, when they're going to start shooting, that sort of stuff. But we haven't heard much about this Zelda movie."

"And they leak much more. Yeah, exactly.
Because of course they have to shoot.
And that's the thing is that we haven't heard much about the Zelda movie which makes me think it's probably not going to be eyeing up a 2025 release and then onwards. But if the Mario movie sequel is early 2026. They will collide. Exactly."

"So it's a bizarre one to me. Maybe we're looking at a really, like a 2027 launch for the Zelda movie at this point with the way that Nintendo are operating. Unless they want to do two big movies in one year."

"But I can't see...
It could work, but I can't see Nintendo doing that unless they had a massive pipeline of future movies as well to balance it all out. I think they'll look at one a year just as a big sort of financial driving point for the company. But it's an interesting one nonetheless. So..."

"It's for film frenzy discussion.
It is, really. A lot of cross- We were actually thinking about that. We recorded a film frenzy earlier and we actually started talking about Ape Escape, I think it was. So, you know, there's a lot of crossover here. And Last of Us as well? Because there's been..."

"Have you discussed that? There's been like new casting and new... for Last of Us.
No, we didn't cover that. We were talking about something...
I can't remember what it was. Movie budgets or something."

"And we were talking about Ape Escape. I need Metroid. I need Metroid in any shape or form.
And Brie Larson to be her.
Yes. Be Samus Aran."

"She wants that, too.
That would be fantastic. I love Brie Larson as an actress.
Yeah, I think everyone does. Let's do that.
Let's have that."

"Well, you mentioned Lego, actually. I want to comment on that a little bit.
Because we've been collecting... I mean, my kid is a huge fan. We've been collecting them and..."

"more so during pandemic times.
You know, we were like building all day and I think the concept they came up with is very Nintendo. It's very interesting, very innovative. It's the same as the Labo or the other things. Like, you know, working together with Lego. I think the way that toy works is fantastic."

"And I think the new... Recent expansions with Donkey Kong, etc.
are really, truly great.
And Mario Kart announcement got me. I wanted to see more on the teaser, but it's gonna be 2025. So it's only like the shape of the kart."

"But, you know, being able... I don't know how you guys picture playing with that. Because I know what you could do with the current sets."

"You could build your levels and then the fantastic idea of the scanner. Like, no matter if you use the toy or not, you put the character on a surface and it will read the color and it will be lava or yellow."

"It will be sand, etc. And it's fantastic. So, with Mario Kart I don't know if you will be able to build your own track. Not only your kart, which I think is a given, but your tracks."

"Or perhaps it's another crossover with the Mario Kart life idea that I thought was also very fresh.
I actually think you're onto some of that. I think that we're gonna see a variety of Mario Kart sets. I think we're gonna have the smaller ones that are literally like, you know, you put the minifigure in a little tiny kart and it sort of connects with the play sets that they already have."

"I think we'll also see a sort of bigger scale set, right?
Lego do this. They have these like, you know, the platforms things and all these ones that you can have like, sort of RC cars, remote control cars."

"And I wouldn't be surprised if we see something like that. You know, again, this isn't out of the ordinary for the Lego Mario sets either."

"The big Bowser set was a couple hundred quid.
It's a big size set and it's made obviously, anyone can pick it up and build it, really. But it's more tailored to adults than the play sets are. Like the NES."

"Exactly, yeah. So, I would assume that we're gonna get something similar for the Mario Kart sets. We'll have the smaller ones and we'll have a more larger set that is built for older audiences, should we say, and maybe we'll have that sort of remote control effect that you can do it and we've seen it before. Massive Rainbow Road. Yeah, exactly."

"Massive Rainbow Road.
Laps and laps. Please, don't say that. Around your house in one of them, that'd be great.
Yeah."

"Get out of the way, Dad.
Playing Mario Kart. But no, it's interesting because... Was it Mario Kart Life, you say, Dad? The one that had the remote control cars?
Yes, and it was a Switch game."

"So, you had a camera on the kart and, you know, even though it wasn't a huge hit or success, the timing was right. Again, it was pandemic times so lockdown, etc."

"We were building this...
It was 2021, if I'm correct, so it's still spending a lot of time at home. We were building these tracks with books and toys and LEGO pieces as well and even though the gameplay, if you can call that gameplay itself, wasn't like..."

"It was what it could be. It wasn't anything more, anything less.
But just the feeling was worth it and we got two karts.
We got Mario and Luigi. You could play split screen on your TV on your home track, you know."

"So, yeah, perhaps the most advantage was taken by YouTubers and people like being very creative and building super complex things but the concept itself was like a dream concept for our kid."

"Myself as a kid would have dreamt of that.
Yeah, I think it's going to be really exciting.
I wouldn't be surprised as well if we see further Mario sets announced because we know the movie is coming in early April."

"So I would assume there's going to be further things announced for them as well to continue growing this collaboration they have. It depends on what... I assume what... This is me making assumptions, right? I assume we're going to get a trailer for the movie at some point, probably late 2025."

"It'll introduce us to some new characters and environments we're going to get and then there'll be LEGO sets coming out that will collaborate and sort of fit that. Hopefully there'll be a seven foot tall statue of Wario we can build or something like that."

"That'd be excellent for Alex's sake, Roy.
We'll look forward to that. But no, a lot of things to talk about in regards to Mario today so I think we've covered the majority of it. We've sort of glanced over the games but I think it's more because I think we're all excited for them but they're not really like the main driving forces of what Mario has upcoming at the moment."

"And Wonder is very recent.
Exactly, Wonder is still the exciting one.
It still sells shit loads.
It sells a lot.
It's incredible. The legs, no pun intended, the legs it has they're incredible even with the physical format, it's still selling every single week. Sometimes will be the most best-selling game of the week, which is crazy in March, right? I expect some spin-offs, some sports game to fill the gap, right? Before the next big 3D Mario."

"Which sports too? Or do you mean like a Mario sports?
What was the last one?
Was it golf? Or was it tennis?
Tennis was first, then golf released."

"Was it strikers?
Strikers released as well.
I think golf was later.
Then there was this multi-sports sort of type of deal."

"But also the RPGs and the stuff, we got the RPG and now the remake of the paper one, so perhaps a new paper for next year wouldn't be off too much."

"New baby one. We haven't had a baby Mario game in a while.
They were shown in the movie as well, right?
Adorable."

"So, we've got a lot of hopes and things that we want from the future of Mario. But again, we'll know more as we go through."

"I would assume that next week we won't be talking about Mario, but you never know, something big could happen. So stay tuned for that for the next episode of Gaming Gossip. Otherwise, Dav, Alex, thank you once again for joining us on this episode of Gaming Gossip."

"We'll be back in a couple of days for the next one, so stay tuned for that. Otherwise, thank you for joining us. Bye!"