Producers update statement to hide by-name mention of the hotly anticipated sequel for Nintendo’s hero, but the name they let slip makes a lot of sense.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie was an instant hit when it arrived in theaters in 2023, and it’s safe to say the filmmakers expected ahead of time that they had a major success on their hands. The CG animated film starring Nintendo’s iconic plumber and his pals (and his foes…and his foes that become his pals), ends with a scene that blatantly sets up a sequel, and while a similar ploy didn’t pan out for the 1993 live-action Super Mario Bros. movie, the CG Super Mario Bros. Movie is indeed getting a follow-up.

Next to nothing has been revealed about the sequel yet, aside from its premiere date, April 3, 2026. But it looks like NBCUniversal may have accidentally let a big secret slip, as the parent company of Universal Pictures, producer and distributor for the movie, briefly listed a title for the The Super Mario Bros. Movie sequel, the title is one Super Mario fans have heard before: Super Mario World.

Within a press release originally posted to the NBCUniversal website on Wednesday is a section headed “Blockbuster Hits Including Wicked: For Good, Jurassic World, and Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 – Streaming Exclusively on Peacock Following Theatrical Release,” and under that:

“An exciting range of films from Universal Pictures, Focus Features, DreamWorks Animation and Illumination were presented, including Megan 2.0, Nobody 2, Bad Guys 2, How to Train Your Dragon, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, Black Phone 2, HIM, The Phoenician Scheme, Super Mario World, Shrek, and Minions.”

Super Mario World was the title of the fourth game in the Super Mario franchise, and the first for Nintendo’s 16-bit Super Famicom/Super NES console, originally released in 1990. But while there are two games between the original Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario World, it would make a lot of sense for the movie sequel to skip the second and third games’ titles.

Calling the new movie Super Mario Bros. 2 could be confusing because there are actually two completely different games titled Super Mario Bros. 2. The Japanese version of the game is essentially an extra-difficult expansion of the original Super Mario Bros., with almost all of its graphics being reused assets from the first game. Meanwhile, the game called Super Mario Bros. 2 in North America was originally a Nintendo-published game from outside the Super Mario franchise with Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Peach plastered over its original cast of playable characters, but with separate settings and enemies from the rest of the franchise.

So calling the sequel movie Super Mario Bros. 2 could have gamers outside Japan expecting characters and situations that aren’t actually going to be part of the new movie. Of course, calling the second CG Super Mario movie Super Mario Bros. 3 would be even more confusing, which brings us to Super Mario World, a nice, non-numbered name that’s still recognizable to Nintendo fans and also communicates to the average moviegoer that this would be an adventure on an even grander scale than the first Super Mario Bros. Movie. Then there’s the fact that the sequel hook at the end of The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a quick scene showing a Yoshi egg about to hatch.

Mario’s dino steed made his series debut in the Super Mario World game, in which the plot involves rescuing other kidnapped Yoshi eggs. Considering that Yoshi was the most noticeable omission from the cast of the first CG movie, it seems a given that the filmmakers would be looking to get him involved as soon as possible in the sequel, and using the Super Mario World game as the sequel’s basis would be the most natural way to do that.

However, it looks like the Super Mario World title may not be set in stone just yet for the sequel. Following the initial posting of the press release, NBCUniversal updated the page and it now makes no mention of the Super Mario Bros. Movie sequel, with the revised section now reading:

“An exciting range of films from Universal Pictures, Focus Features, DreamWorks Animation and Illumination were presented, including Megan 2.0, Nobody 2, Bad Guys 2, How to Train Your Dragon, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, Black Phone 2, HIM, and The Phoenician Scheme.”

Also scrubbed from the updated page are mentions of Shrek and Minions, neither of which had any sort of sequel-identifying title supplement in the original release. Whether the three movies got bundled together for sweeping away because none of them has an absolutely finalized title yet, or if the producers of The Super Mario Bros. Movie sequel simply want to make a formal announcement of the title in a more dramatic way than slipping it into a list behind The Phoenician Scheme is something we’re going to have to wait a little longer to find out, but if Super Mario World does end up being the movie’s title, it’s easy to see why.

Source: NBC Universal via Denfamico Gamer via Hachima Kiko, Wayback Machine via Anime News Network/Joanna Cayanan
Photos ©SoraNews24
Mario ©Nintendo
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