The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) established the cast and creative team
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is a sequel, not a standalone adaptation of a single Nintendo game. It follows directly from The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the 2023 animated feature that introduced the voice cast and creative team now returning for this new installment, according to its Wikipedia entry.
That continuity is the clearest way to answer whether this project is "actually coming out," a question that circulates because Nintendo and Illumination have multiple Mario projects in motion at once. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has a confirmed theatrical release, cast, and creative team, documented on its Wikipedia page and corroborated by ticketing listings such as Fandango's movie overview. It is not a rumor or a far-off pitch; it is a completed sequel with a release that has already happened in theaters.
Horvath and Jelenic return with Pratt, Black and Taylor-Joy
Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, who directed the 2023 film, return in the same roles for the sequel, and the principal voice cast — Chris Pratt, Jack Black, and Anya Taylor-Joy — reprise their parts as well, per Wikipedia. That continuity of both direction and voice cast is why the film reads as a direct follow-up rather than a reboot or side story.
The setting borrows from the Super Mario Galaxy game
The sequel's title and setting draw on Nintendo's Super Mario Galaxy games, which sent Mario into space and introduced Rosalina as a guide figure living among the stars. The film carries that premise and character into its plot, per the Wikipedia summary, though the movie is an original story built around the games' setting rather than a scene-for-scene retelling — so players who never touched the games aren't missing information required to follow the plot, and players who know the games closely shouldn't expect a direct playthrough of its stages on screen.
The result: a 2026 theatrical release
Put together, this is The Super Mario Galaxy Movie: a sequel to the 2023 film, directed again by Horvath and Jelenic, with the 2023 leads returning, set in the Galaxy games' universe, released theatrically. Listings on Fandango confirm it as a 2026 theatrical title rather than a direct-to-streaming release.
The cast adds Donald Glover, Luis Guzmán, Rosalina and Yoshi
The returning trio of Pratt, Black, and Taylor-Joy is joined by new cast members including Donald Glover and Luis Guzmán, alongside characters new to the film series such as Rosalina and Yoshi, according to Wikipedia's cast listing. The role Glover voices isn't specified in that listing, so viewers curious about exactly which character he plays won't find confirmation there — only that he's part of the expanded ensemble.
That expansion is also where reviews find the film's biggest problem. A review from ScreenCrush is blunt about the trade-off in its own headline: lots of characters, not much else holding the film together. The review describes a screen crowded with figures competing for attention, each given just enough screen time to justify their presence in the marketing rather than to serve the story.
Why critics call the ensemble the main weakness
The complaint isn't that any single new character is poorly voiced or designed — it's structural. With Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Peach, Rosalina, Yoshi, and the new human-cast additions all needing screen time, the film has little room left for sustained plot development, which is the core critique in the ScreenCrush review.
What this means for a reader deciding whether to go
A reader weighing a ticket purchase should calibrate expectations around that trade-off rather than around whether the film is simply "good" or "bad" in the abstract:
- Viewers who go for a tour of the Mushroom Kingdom's recognizable cast, cameos, and sight gags will likely find there's plenty to look at.
- Viewers hoping for a tightly plotted, character-driven follow-up to the 2023 film may find the number of competing threads frustrating.
- Families watching primarily for younger kids may find the character density is a feature rather than a flaw, since it functions more like a parade than a drama.
Was it a hit or a flop?
That question has two separate answers depending on what's being measured, and conflating them is the easiest way to misread the film's reception. Critical reception and box office performance are different metrics, and the available reporting doesn't fully settle either in isolation.
What the reviews say
Aggregate review coverage, such as the page maintained by Rotten Tomatoes, reflects critical sentiment, but a score alone doesn't tell a reader how many reviews feed into it or how the critic consensus compares with audience response — those are tracked as separate figures on the same page, and a reader should check both rather than assume one implies the other. The ScreenCrush review is one data point within that aggregate, and its specific complaint — too many characters, not enough movie — is a recurring theme rather than an outlier.
What "hit or flop" actually requires
Calling a film a hit or a flop is a box office judgment, not a review-score judgment, and it depends on opening weekend and total theatrical gross measured against the film's budget and against the performance of its predecessor. None of the sources available here report those box office figures, so a confident verdict on commercial success can't be made from critical reception alone. A reader looking for that answer should look specifically for box office reporting, not review aggregation, since the two measure different things entirely.
Where to watch it now
The theatrical run has given way to a home-viewing window, visible in listings on Prime Video and Apple TV. Those listings confirm the film has moved into digital availability, which is distinct from its theatrical release date — a reader checking "is it out yet" should note that theatrical and streaming/digital are two separate release moments, not one combined launch.
Aaron Horvath
Aaron Horvath is the credited director of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, returning to the role he held on The Super Mario Bros. Movie in 2023, per Wikipedia. His return, alongside Jelenic, is the clearest throughline connecting the two films and the reason the sequel reads as a continuation of a single creative vision rather than a changed-hands follow-up.
Michael Jelenic
Michael Jelenic shares directing and writing credit with Horvath on both the 2023 film and this sequel, according to Wikipedia. The pairing of Horvath and Jelenic across both films is part of what distinguishes this project from an entirely new creative team taking over the franchise.
Mario
Mario remains the film's protagonist, with the plumber-turned-hero again driving the story as he did in the 2023 film, per Wikipedia. Here the role carries him beyond the Mushroom Kingdom and into the space-set premise borrowed from the Super Mario Galaxy games, putting him alongside Rosalina and the film's other new additions rather than facing Bowser alone as in the first installment. Within the larger ensemble that reviewers flag as the film's weak point, Mario still functions as the throughline — the character whose perspective organizes the other storylines — even as the ScreenCrush review argues that organizing role gets diluted by how many other characters are competing for screen time.
Chris Pratt
Chris Pratt returns as the voice of Mario, continuing in the role he originated in the 2023 film, per Wikipedia's cast page. His return is one of the clearest signals, along with Horvath and Jelenic's, that this is a direct sequel rather than a recast or reboot.
Jack Black
Jack Black returns as Bowser, reprising the role from the 2023 film, according to the same Wikipedia cast listing. Bowser's continued presence across films keeps the series' primary antagonist consistent rather than introducing a new villain for the Galaxy setting.
Anya Taylor-Joy
Anya Taylor-Joy returns as the voice of Princess Peach, continuing her role from the 2023 film into the sequel, per Wikipedia. Her return rounds out the trio of leads — Pratt, Black, and Taylor-Joy — that anchors both films.
Luigi
Luigi remains Mario's brother and a recurring character in the franchise's film continuity, appearing alongside the returning principal cast in the sequel per Wikipedia. Within a cast this large, Luigi's role is one among many competing for screen time — part of the same ensemble crowding that reviewers flag as the film's structural weakness.
Who is LGBTQ in Mario?
This question circulates around searches for the film, but none of the available reporting on The Super Mario Galaxy Movie — its Wikipedia entry, review coverage, or cast listings — identifies an LGBTQ character within the Mario film series or clarifies the question as it relates to this title. It appears to surface as a related search rather than as something the film itself addresses, and readers looking for a definitive answer tied to this movie specifically won't find one in current coverage of it.
If that question matters to a reader's decision to watch, the more useful takeaway is that the film's character writing is reported as thin across the board — the ScreenCrush review describes an ensemble stretched across too many figures to give any one of them, old or new, much depth. That's a different problem than representation, but it means character-driven questions of any kind are likely to come back with the same answer: the film prioritizes breadth over depth.
For anyone deciding what to watch next, checking current showtimes or the Prime Video and Apple TV listings directly will confirm whether the film is still playing nearby or already available to stream.