The Super Mario Galaxy Movie features an in-universe explanation for why Star Fox hero Fox McCloud is suddenly mixing with Mario and Bowser — and it opens the door to a full Super Smash Bros. Movie in future.
Warning! Spoilers for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie follow:
Earlier this month, Nintendo stunned fans by revealing the fact that Star Fox would appear in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which begins launching around the world in a matter of hours. Fox is, of course, a character who exists in his own set of games completely unrelated to Mario — and yet here he now is, hanging around with the Mushroom Kingdom’s finest.
How is Fox in the Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and what does this mean for Nintendo’s cinematic universe going forward? Head below for more, but beware of mild spoilers for the film itself. We won’t, however, spoil any character that Nintendo itself hasn’t already confirmed.
After his introduction mid-way through the movie, Fox plays a surprisingly central role in Mario’s plan to defeat Bowser Jr., acting as a heroic Han Solo-like pilot for the film’s band of heroes, including Luigi, Peach, Toad, and Yoshi.
At one point, Mario asks how Fox got separated from his usual crew — Falco Lombardi, Peppy Hare, and Slippy Toad — to which Fox replies that he travelled through a wormhole from another universe. At the end of the movie, Fox references an ability to head back home, suggesting that travel between universes isn’t actually that big of a deal — at least for a Glen Powell-voiced roguish space captain such himself.
Elsewhere in the movie, Nintendo’s lovable Pikmin also briefly make an appearance — another crossover that was confirmed before the film launched. While Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto has previously told IGN that Pikmin are something of an exception to Nintendo’s rule that characters typically stay in their own universes (and actually Pikmin have been making sporadic cameos in Nintendo games for 20 years), on paper this appears to be yet another example of cross-universe travel.
That, or the Pikmin’s home planet (which is Earth, where Mario exists as a fictional video game character) also exists in the same reality as the Mushroom Kingdom, which seems unlikely.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie – 65-Tonne Sand Sculpture
Already, fans have been cross-referencing the Galaxy movie’s long cast list with the Super Smash Bros. series roster, and realizing that a decent chunk of the game’s fighters are already there on screen. Mario, Luigi, Peach, Rosalina, Bowser, Bowser Jr., Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Fox, Pikmin, and ROB are all confirmed (and you could probably also count Piranha Plant in that number).
And that’s not talking about the Galaxy movie’s other additions, which we won’t spoil here.
Crucially, though, Nintendo appears to have established that inter-universe travel is possible in its Mario films — meaning that, lore-wise, there is nothing to stop further crossovers from happening. If anything, the sheer number of additions in Galaxy and the central role of Fox, a character from outside the usual Mario universe, suggests that we should expect more of this from the inevitable third Super Mario Movie (and potentially that leaked Donkey Kong spinoff, too).
Watching the Mario Galaxy Movie, it’s hard not to draw comparisons with the Marvel films, which steadily built up a core band of characters to the point where they could appear together in The Avengers, when a suitably big Thanos-level threat came along. Two films in, Nintendo has been content to pit Mario against Bowser and Bowser Jr., but it will surely want to avoid repetition in a third movie — and up the stakes. Is it time for Master Hand, the boss of Super Smash Bros., to make his big screen appearance? And who will answer the call if indeed that happens?
For now, all we can say is the Super Mario Galaxy Movie allows for pretty much any character to appear in future — although probably not the stars of next year’s The Legend of Zelda movie, which will be live-action.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
