Glen Powell is confirmed to voice the role of Fox McCloud in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Universal’s follow-up to 2023 box office smash The Super Mario Bros. Movie, out April 1.
Powell made the announcement in a post to Instagram on Friday, captioned “Born to Barrel Roll,” which you can view below.
Originating in Nintendo‘s Star Fox video games, McCloud is an elite pilot known for leading the mercenary team Star Fox who has also appeared across the broader Nintendo ecosystem, including in the Super Smash Bros. series. He’s just one new character being introduced in the sequel, with an A-lister voicing, others being Princess Rosalina (Brie Larson), Yoshi (Donald Glover), and Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie).
Produced by Illumination and Nintendo, based on the latter’s games, as was the first film, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is expected to be one of this year’s biggest releases, given the outsized success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which grossed over $1.3 billion worldwide to become the third-highest-grossing animated film of all time, behind only Disney’s Frozen films.
Returning voice cast in the sequel includes Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, and Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek. While the first film saw Brooklyn plumber brothers Mario and Luigi transported through a mysterious pipe to a magical new world, the new film will find them exploring cosmic worlds and tackling galactic challenges far from the familiar Mushroom Kingdom.
Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic returned to direct from a script by Matthew Fogel, with Universal and Nintendo co-financing and the former set to distribute the film worldwide.
Most recently setting up crocodile horror-thriller spec The Death Roll at Lionsgate with his Barnstorm set to produce, as we first reported, Powell’s banner is currently prepping its first feature, a Universal film to be directed by Judd Apatow and star Powell, based on a script they wrote together. Most recently seen leading The Running Man (Paramount) and How to Make a Killing (A24), Powell’s upcoming acting slate also includes J.J. Abrams’ The Great Beyond and Chad Powers Season 2.