The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 release date: confirmed for April 2026

Nintendo has confirmed that The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 is coming to theaters on April 3, 2026 and that it will broadening Mario's world further

There’s good news and bad news about The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 today. The good news is that we finally have an official release date, according to Nintendo. The bad news is that you’ll have to wait another two years to watch this sequel.

“This film is planned for release in theaters on April 3rd, 2026,” said Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto via a post on X. It’ll launch in the US and other markets first and additional regions throughout the month April 2026.

Even before this announcement, The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 was being talked about by video game fans, being teased by Nintendo and being predicted by the first Mario film’s cast. All of the audiences I encountered during my The Super Mario Bros. Movie review in 3D vs 4DX vs IMAX have wanted a sequel to happen too.

More than anything, the Super Mario movie box office revenue made it a sure thing – Nintendo and Universal Pictures aren’t going to leave money on the table when the April 2023 film grossed $377 million in its first weekend and already has a hit song with “Peaches” by Jack Black. To put these figures into perspective, it beat Disney’s Frozen 2 for the animated weekend opener record and the release in Japan, Nintendo’s home country, hasn’t even happened yet.

There are going to be some Mario movie spoilers as we discuss the existence of The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2, as the first film is filled with Easter eggs and, in one case, a literal egg. Here’s what we know so far about the Mario movie sequel.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 release date

As soon as the post-credits scene finished rolling in theaters, everyone wanted to know when The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 was going to release. After all, Nintendo teased a new storyline before the screen faded to black. It is coming, but when?

Well, we finally know. April 3, 2026 is the The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 release date, and that’s exactly what we predicted given the track record of Illumination, the Universal Pictures-owned studio behind the Mario movie’s computer animation.

The pattern for Illumination – which makes the Despicable Me and The Secret Life of Pets movies – shows that the soonest time frame between sequels is three years, and that holds up here. This makes a lot of sense, as Universal and Nintendo not only have to re-sign the cast and take time to market the sequel, but the two companies also want to ensure they get as much bang for their buck from the first movie since it only recently came to Blu-Ray and on online streaming services.

The April 3, 2026 release date offers Nintendo, Universal and Illumination breathing room for script, cast and animation development, even though fans are already clamoring for a sequel by next year.

New characters for Super Mario Bros. Movie 2

Miyamoto recently shed light on The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 changes by saying: “We're thinking about broadening Mario's world further, and it'll have a bright and fun story.” So you can expect new characters from the Mushroom Kingdom universe.

There are two Nintendo characters being talked about in advance of The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 announcement: Yoshi and Wario. Yoshi is pretty much a lock, as anyone who witnessed the post-credits scene can attest. The first Super Mario movie depicts a Yoshi egg that appears to be nestled in deep, cavernous sewers of Brooklyn, and just as the screen fades to black, the egg breaks open and you hear “Yoshi.”

This Marvel-esque sequel teaser during the post-credits pretty much confirms that a sequel is on the way and that Yoshi will get a starring role. We did see Yoshis living in the Mushroom Kingdom during the 92-minute first movie, but the colorful fruit-eating dinosaurs are relegated to a galloping herd in the background of a single scene.

Wario is the other obvious character that could appear in the Super Mario Bros. movie sequel and was completely absent from the first film. Because Bowser’s role has been diminished – literally – Wario could easily take over as the new archrival to Mario.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 cast

The Super Mario Bros. Movie sequel could include the entire cast of the first film, as no one died. Chris Pratt as Mario, Charlie Day as Luigi and Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach are pretty much a given – it’s hard to have a Mario film without Mario, his brother and his love interest. Likewise, Keegan Michael Key as Toad and Seth Rogan as Donkey Kong are almost shoe-ins.

Jack Black, who voices Bowser in the first movie, doesn’t know if the King Koopa character will be back, citing the fact that animated movies tend to cycle through villains. But the actor told GameStop that he’d like to see Wario voiced by Pedro Pascal in The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2. Fitting.

Yoshi has been a prominent Nintendo character since 1990’s SNES game Super Mario World and has been voiced by Kazumi Totaka since 1997 (Yoshi’s Story on the N64). There’s no telling if Totaka will return to voice Yoshi in The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 or if he’ll be replaced by a Hollywood megastar.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 movie updates

Besides inevitable leaks about the production of the sequel, the first official sign that the movie is coming will be when Nintendo teases the first Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 trailer. But that’s years from now. I don’t expect a trailer to happen until late 2025 at the earliest given the fact that the release date is April 3, 2026.

Of course, if anything changes, we’ll keep this page updated with the latest information about The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2.