The Super Mario Bros. Movie hasn’t even hit theaters yet, but rumors of spinoffs and sequels have already started gaining steam.
The animated film, which will see Chris Pratt’s Mario team up with Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) in order to take down Bowser (Jack Black), finds a star-studded cast taking on the classic Nintendo world that we all know and love. Seth Rogen voices Donkey Kong in the flick, and he is aware of talks surrounding a potential Donkey Kong-centered spinoff.
When asked if he could confirm or deny the spinoff rumors, Rogen replied jokingly.
“I mean, I can confirm that people keep telling me that they’ve heard there might be a spinoff,” Rogen told IGN. “There’s been no official [confirmation]. I think until the movie comes out and people get to see it and say what they say about it…”
He continued: “But it’s something I would be excited to do. I’ve had a really good time making the movie.”
Rogen’s Donkey Kong is only one of countless classic characters appearing in the film. Charlie Day plays Luigi, Keegan-Michael Key voices Toad, and Fred Armisen stars as Cranky Kong, DK’s crabby grandfather. For Rogen, the extensive world of Mario allows so many opportunities for spinoffs, sequels, and expansions.
“There’s like several hundred games involving these characters, so I would imagine there’s more than, like, 90 minutes of movie they could extract from them,” Rogen told IGN. “There’s dozens of worlds and stories. For me, I grew up with Mario Brothers and Donkey Kong and all this stuff, so I’m like very fond of it, and it’s very fun to see it brought to life. So yeah, it’s something that I would continue to do.”
Pratt, too, thinks that there’s opportunity for this film to spawn a bigger franchise. While nothing is official yet, Pratt has already teased a sequel to the upcoming film, telling CBR that there’s “been talk” of a movie centered on Luigi’s Mansion.
“[This movie] mines this vein of sentiment from our childhood and meaning from our childhood,” Pratt previously told IGN. “So get ready for a lot of these movies. And, thankfully, the movie really works.”
The Super Mario Bros. Movie releases in theaters on April 5.
Carson Burton is a freelance news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter at @carsonsburton.
