At this morning’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’s Nintendo Direct, we were finally told who would be voicing both Rosalina, and new character Bowser Jr. Rosalina will be voiced by Brie Larson, while Benny Safdie is Bowser Jr.
The Direct opened with the first-ever full trailer for the film. The trailer opens with Bowser, who’s taken up painting since his defeat by the Mario brothers in the first film. It’s revealed that he’s been living in a model castle inside Peach’s Castle ever since he shrunk down from eating a Mini Mushroom, and predictably, he’s still obsessed with Peach.
The Galaxy awaits. The official trailer for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is here. Only in theaters April 2026. pic.twitter.com/OdBMGOlgXO
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) November 12, 2025
We then get a number of scenes from the rest of the film. There’s a huge star shower over Peach’s castle, and Peach and Toad fly into the sky using the power of the stars. We see a few planets, including one covered in water and another place that looks like Sand Kingdom from Super Mario Odyssey, perhaps suggesting we’ll be visiting locations from other games as well.
We also see a lot of a brand new character: Bowser Jr., who’s here to rescue Bowser and is wielding his paintbrush from Super Mario Sunshine. It’s unclear how his plot is going to sync up with whatever’s going on with Rosalina, who we also see briefly at the end gracefully fighting off a giant mech using her magical powers. Unfortunately, for those who were hoping to see Yoshi in this one, he didn’t make an appearance at all.
During the trailer, we learned that Illumination is just “weeks away” from completing animation on the film, which is set to release on April 3, 2026 in the US and April 24 in Japan. We’ve been told it will feature some Nintendo characters that “are really deep cuts“, though so far we haven’t seen who any of those might be. Fans are speculating that the plot might finally confirm a long-held theory around Peach and Rosalina’s origins, but ultimately we’re still not sure exactly how closely the story will follow the story of any Mario game, including Galaxy or Galaxy 2.
Safdie and Larson will be joined by the returning cast from the first movie: 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.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
