Potential storylines for the The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is almost two years old already. When it first released in April 2023, it was received fairly well as far as video game movies go – and it became one of the most successful animated movies of all time. That said, one of its shortcomings was its story. It moved quite fast, separated Mario and Luigi at the start, and overall didn’t feature a ton of character depth or development. That’s fairly typical for the first movie in a series, though.

Indeed, we’ve received confirmation that there is a second movie “based on the world of Super Mario Bros.” in development. There’s no word on exactly what it will be. It’s probably safe to assume that it will simply be The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2, but there’s a chance it could be based around Donkey Kong or possibly someone else. So today, we’re discussing some potential plot point ideas for the next Mario movie, which we may even see for Mario Day this year. In order to best predict potential storylines for the next movie, we do have to spoil many elements of the first film – so keep that in mind before you continue reading.

The biggest potential plot point for the next Mario Movie comes in the form of the Yoshi Egg that appears during the first film’s end credits scene. It’s reasonable to assume, then, that Yoshi will play a big role in the next Mario movie. Interestingly enough, Mario already encountered a hoard of Yoshis in the first film during the traveling segment. When you think of Yoshi, you think of either Super Mario World or Super Mario World 2 – they’re the main series games where he’s arguably most prominent. In Super Mario World, Bowser kidnaps Peach and takes over Dinosaur Land, and along the way Mario saves Yoshi and enlists his help. That’s definitely a potential plot point for the second movie, but it’d be a strange one. For one, Peach is portrayed as incredibly powerful in the first movie. It seems unlikely that the writers would relegate her to a lesser role – not to mention, she tried to fight Bowser a few times and held her own decently well in the first film. It’d be out of character for this version of Peach to be kidnapped but then make no attempt to escape until Mario and Luigi appear to rescue her.

Another interesting note regarding Yoshi: in the games, it’s stated that when baby Mario and Luigi were being transported to their parents, Kamek intervened and tried to kidnap them. The Yoshi clan found baby Mario and helped him recover his brother, so in video game canon the Yoshis have been a big part of Mario and Luigi’s lives since birth. The same can’t be true in the movie, though. Mario and Luigi were born in Brooklyn, which is shown to be a different world entirely than the Mushroom Kingdom (and Yoshi’s Island, by extension). Mario and Luigi are also shown as babies in the movie, confirming that they were indeed living in “the real world” as children. That means that Yoshi has no connection to Mario or Luigi by the end of the first movie, so when the next film utilizes him it’d have to be in a more original way.

While Yoshi is all but confirmed for the sequel, no other new characters are at the moment. The original movie didn’t feature Bowser Jr., Wario, Waluigi, Daisy, the Koopalings, Rosalina, or Toadette, which are all fairly major exclusions. We don’t expect more than one or two big “new” characters in the sequel, but any of these are likely to appear at some point. Wario and Waluigi in particular have tons of potential in the context of an animated film; their designs are expressive and the two could serve as secondary comic relief antagonists. Speaking of which, we think it’s highly likely that Bowser returns as the main antagonist – a lot of Mario fans’ favorite games are RPG titles where Bowser isn’t the main villain, but the second movie might be too early to shelve him as the main villain. He’s also by far and away the most iconic villain in the Mario franchise. Wario, Waluigi, and Donkey Kong have all appeared as villains in past Mario games, but it’s clear from the first movie that Donkey Kong isn’t at all evil and Wario and Waluigi might be a bit too silly to be the sequel film’s overarching antagonists. That doesn’t leave many iconic options for potential villains.

One good idea is a movie vaguely based on Super Mario Galaxy. In the first film, Peach hints that there are plenty of galaxies out there, which is a potential route the writers could take. Much like in Super Mario Galaxy, Bowser could step up his game and attempt to take over the entire universe rather than “just” the Mushroom Kingdom. That would create an excuse to introduce Rosalina, the Comet Observatory, and more Lumas – plus, Yoshi appeared in Super Mario Galaxy 2, so his inclusion would make sense as well. It’s still a fairly simple plot, but that makes sense – as we mentioned earlier, one of the first movie’s main criticisms was that its story was a little bit thin. It’s also possible that the writers could go with a movie based more on Donkey Kong Country or more on Luigi’s Mansion – the former is probably more likely (given Nintendo’s effort to expand Super Nintendo World with a Donkey Kong Country section), but the latter is a good idea too. Or you could go with something loosely based on Super Mario Sunshine, which could realistically introduce Bowser Jr. while keeping in Yoshi. With the Switch 2 on the horizon, there’s no doubt a new 3D Mario in the distant future too – the movie could also draw a little bit of inspiration from that.

Regardless of what kind of story the Mario movie sequel goes with, there’s one thing it absolutely must do: give Luigi more screen time. He was essentially sidelined for the entirety of the first movie; he got kidnapped fairly early on and remained trapped until the end. Half the appeal of Mario and Luigi is their interactions with each other, which is part of why the Mario & Luigi RPG games are so beloved, for instance. It’s bizarre that the Super Mario Brothers Movie split them up for a majority of the film. That said, we see what the writers were going for – even though they’re not together for the entire movie, Mario uses saving Luigi as motivation for everything he does in the Mushroom Kingdom. That makes sense and does speak to his character, but for the sequel we’d like Mario and Luigi to stick together.

It’s entirely possible, though unconfirmed, that we’ll get a trailer for the movie (or at least an official name for it) on MAR10 Day this year. What kind of storyline would you like to see out of the second Mario movie? One based on Super Mario Galaxy, one with Wario and Waluigi as the villains, something based on Super Mario World, or something else entirely? Let us know in the comments down below.