Chris Pratt Discusses His “Super Mario Bros.” Casting

One of the more exciting animated features announced in the last few years has been Illumination Entertainment’s Super Mario Bros.. Nintendo has been notoriously strict with their IPs since the disastrous live-action adaptation in the 90’s, which essentially put any other film or TV iterations on ice.

And while there hasn’t been much talk about the project from either Nintendo or Illumination, that all changed last week when the voice cast was announced, which included Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Charlie Day as Luigi, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, and Chris Pratt as Mario.

Now, this is certainly a star-studded cast, but some fans of the franchise have taken exception to Pratt’s casting. Even though the Guardians of the Galaxy star has had a lot of success with animated roles, voicing lead roles in The Lego Movie franchise and Disney’s Onward, many seem to think that he’s not a good fit for the role, with an online petition evening popping up with a call to give the role to Danny DeVito.

In the aftermath of the tepid reaction to his casting, Pratt took to social media to discuss the project and allay the fears of diehard fans, stating:

When I was a kid, I lived in Lake Stevens, Washington, and there’s this coin-operated laundromat near my house and it had Super Mario Bros. The original arcade game. Oh, I love that game. I never had a quarter it felt like. I’d either steal them from the wishing well [laughs]. That’s wild. It just dawned on me right now the quarter I stole out of the wishing well to play Super Mario Bros. has come true that I get to be the voice of Mario. Clearly, I stole someone else’s wish, so I’m just waiting for that row of karma dominoes to come crashing down. But as it is right now, it’s a me, Mario. That’s not the voice. You’ll have to wait to hear the voice, but we’ve been working really hard on it and I’m really excited to announce that I’m going to voice the video game I dreamed of playing as a kid. Dreams come true.

It’s nice to see that the actor has such passion for the property, but it’s also refreshing to hear that he is listening to audiences. With the care that Nintendo has given to its biggest franchise over the years, it’s likely the choice of Pratt wasn’t landed on lightly.

As it stands, Chris Pratt is still voicing Mario in the Super Mario Bros. feature and it doesn’t seem that is going to change. Hopefully fans will give the casting a chance, especially given that the original voice of the character, Charles Martinet, will be involved. The film currently doesn’t have a release date.