As you might expect, like every other movie being released by Hollywood in the modern era, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has its eyes on what comes next. The film fits the bill for a franchise movie that follows a billion-dollar hit, setting up not only a sequel to itself but even more movies set in a potential Nintendo Cinematic Universe. Though a Super Smash Bros. movie is on many fans’ minds, that’s not exactly one of the films set up by the movie (though it’s clearly has a place down the line), of which there are three. Spoilers will follow for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
3) Star Fox
When Nintendo confirmed that Fox McCloud would be making an appearance in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, fans assumed that this could only mean one thing: a Super Smash Bros. Movie is happening. As noted, that’s almost certainly true, but it’s a “run before you walk” assumption, because if The Super Mario Galaxy Movie makes anything clear, it’s that a Star Fox movie will happen before a Smash Bros. crossover.
When Fox McCloud is introduced in the film, he details his backstory and favorite things to do (which, naturally, includes doing barrel rolls). This sequence also has Fox reveal that his three fellow members of Star Fox, Peppy, Falco, and Slippy, are all seemingly alive and well, and work alongside him to protect the Lylat system. What the scene doesn’t imply, though, is what the evil Andross’ status is in the Star Fox universe, meaning that the Star Fox film could certainly take on a similar narrative to Star Fox 64 when it eventually comes together.
The only trouble with the teased Star Fox movie in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and what we’ll almost certainly get on the big screen is the visual style. Fox’s flashback sequence in the film is a stylish anime-inspired scene, one that immediately pops from the rest of the movie and stands out as having its own visual tone. As amazing as it would be to see this, one finds it almost impossible to imagine Illumination actually embracing that aesthetic for an entire movie, especially since it’s not their style at all.
2) Super Mario 3
To the surprise of no one, yes, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie makes it clear that there are plans for a third film in the series. The ways the movie does this is by rebuilding Princess Peach’s castle in the Mushroom Kingdom but also in confirming how she and Rosalina are secretly related. The film also teases the status of Bowser and Bowser Jr, the former now in his “Dry Bowser” era and both of them locked away in prison. There’s also a post-credit tease with the imminent arrival of Princess Daisy into the equation as well, whose appearance after the film is akin to the tease of Yoshi in the first movie. That being said, we can likely assume that Daisy will have a pretty big role in the next movie, akin to Yoshi’s appearance in this film.
What is unclear about a third Super Mario movie is what the title might be. With the second film taking its cues from Super Mario Galaxy, one assumes that a third film will have to either up the ante or pull from a game title that has a grandeur akin to “Galaxy.” Will the third movie be The Super Mario Odyssey Movie or The Super Mario Wonder Movie? That remains to be seen, but The Super Mario World Movie feels like a step down by comparison.
1) Donkey Kong
Around the time of the release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, there was already scuttlebutt and rumors that Seth Rogen’s Donkey Kong would be the first character to get his own spinoff movie. Despite all that hearsay, news of that project has never fully materialized (though Universal has registered a copyright for an “Untitled Donkey Kong Project”). It’s worth nothing that despite a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it apperance by Donkey Kong in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, the cameo by the giant ape could just be a cameo for people paying attention or it could be a tease of the planned movie itself.
In the brief sequence where Yoshi is detailing his backstory, which amounted to him just wandering around New York City, we see the dinosaur visit a number of places all while accompanied to “Hypnotize” by The Notorious B.I.G. In the scene, there’s a brief flash to Donkey Kong terrorizing the city, calling back to the original Donkey Kong video game as he wanders through moving platforms in the city and throws barrels around. Now it’s almost certain that this brief visual gag is meant to harken back to his first appearance, one of probably a million Easter eggs in the movie, or it could be teasing that the eventual Donkey Kong game might involve the story of how and why he came to Earth from his universe.
This is all speculation on our part, but given how little Donkey Kong is in the film, and all the other teases it does for an expanded “Nintendo Cinematic Universe,” it’s hard not to see it as a potential seed for something else.
