Nintendo and Illumination have saved one of their biggest surprises for last.
Just one day before Mario Day, the final Super Mario Galaxy Movie Direct dropped on Monday, and it came with a cast reveal nobody saw coming.
Donald Glover will voice Yoshi in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which hits theaters on April 1, 2026.
The announcement was made by Illumination CEO and producer Chris Meledandri as part of the Nintendo Direct presentation, which also dropped the film’s final trailer.
Glover’s casting was kept completely secret until today, making it one of the most successfully guarded surprises in recent animated film history.
Nintendo and Illumination weren’t done there. The Direct also confirmed that Luis Guzman, who played Luigi in the original 2023 Super Mario Bros. Movie, will return in a new role, this time voicing Wart, the main villain of Super Mario Bros. 2.
Issa Rae joins the cast as Honey Queen, an ally of Mario who appears in the Super Mario Galaxy game the film is based on.
Why Donald Glover As Yoshi Is Such A Big Deal
Donald Glover is one of the most multi-talented performers working today.
As Childish Gambino, he has put out some of the most critically acclaimed music of the past decade, including the Grammy-winning This Is America.
As an actor, he starred in Atlanta, widely considered one of the best television series of the 2010s, and played Lando Calrissian in Solo: A Star Wars Story.
He has also written, directed, and produced across film and television.
Casting someone of Glover’s caliber as Yoshi signals that Nintendo and Illumination are treating this sequel with serious star power.
The original Super Mario Bros. Movie featured Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Seth Rogen, a cast that helped it gross over $1.3 billion worldwide, making it one of the highest-grossing animated films of all time.
The Galaxy sequel is clearly swinging just as hard.
Yoshi is one of Nintendo’s most beloved characters, Mario’s loyal dinosaur companion who debuted in Super Mario World in 1990 and has appeared in dozens of games since.
Getting the voice right matters enormously to fans, and Glover’s warm, expressive vocal range seems like a genuinely inspired choice.
What Is The Super Mario Galaxy Movie About?
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is the sequel to 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie and is based on the critically acclaimed Nintendo Wii game of the same name, originally released in 2007.
In the game, Mario travels through space to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser, who has built a massive space empire at the center of the universe.
The game was praised for its inventive gravity-based gameplay and is widely regarded as one of the greatest video games ever made.
The film will feature the return of the original voice cast alongside the new additions. Chris Pratt returns as Mario, with Anya Taylor-Joy reprising Princess Peach and Jack Black returning as Bowser.
Luis Guzman’s addition as Wart and Issa Rae’s Honey Queen suggest the film is expanding its world significantly beyond what the game’s story contained.
When Does It Come Out?
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie opens in theaters on April 1, 2026, which, despite being April Fool’s Day, is very much not a joke.
The timing puts it just in time for spring break audiences, and given the original film’s record-breaking performance, expectations are enormous.
Tomorrow, March 10, is Mario Day, a date Nintendo fans celebrate annually because 3/10 looks like MAR10.
The timing of today’s final Direct was clearly deliberate, building maximum anticipation heading into the holiday and the film’s final weeks of marketing.
The trailer is out now. Donald Glover is Yoshi. The internet is very happy about this.
