Mario movie producer defends casting Chris Pratt as Mario

Last Updated on November 25, 2021

It was announced in September that Illumination had partnered with Nintendo in order to make an animated Super Mario Bros. movie. The voice cast for the film was also revealed, with Chris Pratt set to take center stage as Mario himself. This announcement led to a bit of criticism from those who would rather not hear Pratt as the iconic video-game character, but now Illumination founder and Mario movie producer Chris Meledandri has responded.

While speaking with TooFab, Meledandri said that he hopes fans and critics alike will be won over by Chris Pratt’s performance:

“All I can tell you is the voice that he’s doing for us, and Mario, is phenomenal. Yeah, I can’t wait for people to hear it.”

Meledandri also touched upon those who aren’t happy that an Italian actor wasn’t cast in the role. “Well, as an Italian American myself, I understand,” Meledandri said. “You know, I understand the comments. Charlie Day, who’s playing Luigi, actually comes from Italian heritage. Yeah, so that’s our nod.” It doesn’t sound like this version of Mario will be using the over-the-top accent (It’s a-me, Mario!), but it will be touched upon in the Super Mario Bros. movie. “We cover it in the movie. So you’ll see we definitely nod to that,” Meledandri said before adding, “That’s not the tenor of the performance throughout the film.” The Super Mario Bros. movie also stars Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black, Seth Rogen, Keegan-Michael Key, and more and will hit theaters on December 21, 2022.

Chris Pratt will next be seen reprising his role as Owen Grady in Jurassic World: Dominion, which will hit theaters on June 10, 2022. Mario isn’t the only major character that Chris Pratt will be lending his voice to as it was also recently announced that he would be voicing Garfield in a new animated movie.