We might have the name of the The Super Mario Bros. Movie sequel ahead of time after an NBCUniversal press release appeared to jump the gun.
As spotted across the internet, NBCUniversal published a press release announcing its Upfront Showcase offerings, and in it mentioned Super Mario World as one of the upcoming films from Universal Pictures and Illumination that will eventually be released on its streaming service, Peacock.
It didn’t take long for Universal to change the wording of the press release to remove all mention of Mario entirely.
«Super Mario World» title removed from the post pic.twitter.com/l88T05I096
— Wario64 (@Wario64) May 14, 2025
It’s worth noting that the original paragraph in the NBCUniversal press release referred to “Super Mario World, Shrek, and Minions.» We know Shrek and Minions are Shrek 5 and Minions 3, which perhaps means NBCUniversal did not list the correct final title of the Mario movie sequel either, instead a potential umbrella term. That is to say, the next Shrek movie is not simply called Shrek, and the next Minions movie is not simply called Minions.
However, Super Mario World is a more specific title than a simple Super Mario or Super Mario Bros., so it’s worth speculating based on it being correct. And indeed, Super Mario World as the title of the next Mario movie would make a lot of sense.
Warning! Spoilers for The Super Mario Bors. Movie follow:
The Super Mario Bros. Movie post-credits scene gave us a glimpse of a character who’s almost certainly going to play a big part in the next movie. We return to the underground sewer system of the real world and see a quick glimpse of a polka-dotted egg. That egg is starting to hatch, and we know who’s inside: Mario’s faithful dinosaur companion Yoshi. The Super Mario Bros. Movie is teeing up Yoshi in basically the same way the first Sonic the Hedgehog teased the debut of Tails.
Fans of the Mario video games will know 1990 SNES platformer masterpiece Super Mario World marked Yoshi’s video game debut. Perhaps ‘The Super Mario World Movie’ will do the same in the movie adaptation franchise.
According to the lore in Super Mario World (what little there is), Bowser magically trapped the Yoshis in eggs, leaving Mario to find and free them over the course of the game. The Yoshi we see in the post-credits scene could be part of one of Bowser’s schemes. Maybe the Koopa King has a contingency plan in case he’s defeated?
The Super Mario Bros. Movie arrived in 2023 and was a smash hit for Nintendo, pulling in $1.36 billion worldwide. This quickly led to the announcement of a second film, but outside an April 3, 2026 release date, practically nothing is known about it.
In our 8/10 review of the first film, IGN said: «The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a fireball of animated fantasy, overcoming a Paper Mario-thin plot with undeniable charm and energy.»
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
