The ‘Super Mario Bros.’ Movie Now Has A Release Window & It’s Uh, Far Away

Early last year, Nintendo announced it was working on an animated movie based on its most popular franchise, Super Mario Bros. Today, the company revealed a rough release window for the flick and uh, it’s a while off yet, folks.

I’ll just go ahead and rip the bandaid off. You’re gonna be waiting about four years according to Nintendo president, Shuntaro Furukawa, who said during the company’s financial results briefing that “the development of animated film based on “Super Mario Bros.” with Illumination is moving along for an anticipated theatrical release around 2022.”

The movie is set to be co-produced by Mario creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, and Illumination founder and CEO, Chris Meledandri, with financing to be handled by both Nintendo and Universal, the latter of which will also head up distribution.

Given Illumination is behind popular animated movies like Despicable Me and Minions, the standard for Nintendo’s next film adaptation of Super Mario Bros. is set pretty damn high. But look, at the very least, it’s gotta be better than the 1993 live-action flick starring Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo, and Dennis Hopper. To be fair, I fucking loved that shit when it came out, but I was also five, and five-year-olds are idiots.

So yeah, we’re gonna have to wait a long time for the new Super Mario Bros. movie, but I have a good feeling it’ll be worth the wait.