Chris Pratt Talks Nintendo Cinematic Universe and Marvel and DC Movies

Movies

Chris Pratt is excited for more Nintendo movies. The former Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World star played Mario in last year’s massive hit The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the sequel for which was announced on March 10 (which is “Mario Day,” which you’re forgiven for groaning over) as being in development and scheduled for an April 3, 2026, release. Pratt will return as Mario, as will the production team and, presumably, the rest of the cast. Pratt recently spoke to Screen Rant about the sequel, and his comments may suggest that the next Mario Bros. film will open the door to an expanded Nintendo universe on film:

“Oh, man! There’s so much to explore. There are decades worth of [games] to explore, not only with Mario and Peach and Donkey Kong and Luigi and Bowser and Yoshi; that was teased at the end. But it just gets me so excited. I was such a Nintendo head growing up, so just thinking about how everything from Legend of Zelda to the entire Nintendo cinematic universe could be created and what that could look like for all of these characters that I love? I mean, there’s really no limit. We could talk about it for hours.”

I don’t want to rain on everyone’s parade, but without the actual question for context, this answer seems kind of vague to me. People posting about it on social media are excited and assuming this means Super Mario Bros. 2 will directly lead into The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Star Fox, et al., but I’m not sure if Pratt is saying that or just imagining the possibilities now that the first film was so successful and well-liked by Nintendo fans. He did something similar before The Super Mario Bros. Movie arrived in theaters, musing about a Nintendo Cinematic Universe, and like now, he didn’t give specifics:

That doesn’t mean there are no plans for a Nintendo Cinematic Universe; I wouldn’t be surprised if Nintendo and Illumination have several whiteboards filled with ideas and possible connection points. There is a Legend of Zelda movie in development, and while it’s in live-action as opposed to the animated Super Mario Bros., they could merge the two styles in a team-up movie, like the Sonic the Hedgehog films. But whether Super Mario Bros. 2 will be the film to launch the shared universe is up in the air, despite Pratt’s enthusiasm.

However, Pratt did give a more definitive answer – albeit while playing coy, or at least pretending to do so – on whether he would return as Star-Lord in a Marvel movie and hop across the street to the Distinguished Competition, which is now run by Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn. ComicBook.com asked Pratt the question in an interview to promote The Garfield Movie, another upcoming animated film where he plays a beloved character:

I think we all know what that means: he can’t confirm either publicly, but they’re both happening. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ended with the tease, “Star-Lord will return,” so it’s a safe bet that this has been a done deal for a while. He’ll probably show up in Secret Wars along with anyone else they can wrangle in for another appearance. And James Gunn has said he was going to bring some of the Guardians into his DCU, even specifically suggesting Pratt would be one of them; given the response to that befuddling Superman image Gunn released a few days ago, they need all the goodwill they can get, and Pratt has tons of it. In other words, Chris Pratt isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, and as much as some contingents may not like that, normal people are thrilled (if the movies are good – which is a big if right now.)