Earlier today, the official Nintendo of America Twitter account revealed that the upcoming Super Mario Bros film had been delayed. And the news apparently came from Mr Miyamoto himself… the tweet read:

This is Miyamoto. After consulting with Chris-san, my partner at Illumination on the Super Mario Bros. film, we decided to move the global release to Spring 2023–April 28 in Japan and April 7 in North America. My deepest apologies but I promise it will be well worth the wait.

Back during a Nintendo Direct in September 2021 the release date was originally announced as December 2022 so this signifies around a four-month shift. After the huge success of both Sonic movies, it makes sense that Nintendo is doing all they can to ensure that the Mario movie is a similar hit. As a reminder, Nintendo will be partnering with Illumination for this film – the studio known for animated movies including the Despicable Me series, the offshoot Minions films, as well as The Secret Life of Pets and Sing.

Several members of the voice cast were also revealed during that Direct including Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Micahel Key as Toad, and Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong. Interestingly, Mario will be talking ‘a lot’ and Charles Martinet will also have some roles too.

For more Nintendo news be sure to check out the latest episode of our bite-sized weekly video series 1-Up 1-Down.