The upcoming sequel to 2023’s Super Mario Bros. Movie looks to have accidentally had its name revealed early, thanks to NBCUniversal making a goof with a press release. The film will seemingly be going by Super Mario World, not to be confused with the classic 90s SNES game.
We first learned that this sequel was coming in March last year, as Nintendo, Universal and co unsurprisingly decided to double down on the big hit. This year’s Minecraft Movie has only further marked that call out as a no-brainer, as game adaptations continue to make huge bank at the box office.
Now, as spotted by Wario64, NBCUniversal has put out a press release citing Super Mario World among a list of upcoming films from Universal Pictures and Illumination that will eventually be released on its Peacock streaming service.
The reference to Mario was quickly scrubbed, pointing to it having been an error of some kind to chuck it in alongside the likes of Shrek, Minions, and Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale – all films that cater to the exact same audience (ok, maybe not). That’d be Shrek 5 and Minions 3, by the way, potentially suggesting Super Mario World might not be this sequel’s final title, if it turns out the company only meant the Mario movie IP as a whole.
That said, as folks have pointed out, Super Mario World could make perfect sense as the title if the SNES game and the events of the first Mario movie’s post-credits scene offer clues here.
Warning: Spoilers for The Super Mario Movie lie ahead.
That post-credits scene offered a quick look at a polka-dotted egg starting to hatch – likely teasing a Yoshi debut. Super Mario World on the SNES marked Yoshi’s game debut in the long-running series that he’s gone on to become a staple of as we’ve hopped, leaped, and jumped from the 90s to 2025.
Plus, it’d also fit nicely with the latest edition of Mario Kart set to drop with the Switch 2 this summer being dubbed Mario Kart World. Accidental corporate synergy maybe, but hey.
Wait! Will this next Mario movie have cinema-goers demanding that prices be dropped? Given the kind of theatre shenanigans the Minecraft Movie’s spawned, who knows.
While you wait to see if Super Mario World is confirmed as the sequel’s name, make sure to check out our review of the first film.
