Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto has discussed having a “vague idea” for Peach and Rosalina’s true relationship while making the original Super Mario Galaxy — something the new Super Mario Galaxy Movie finally gives “some meat” to.
Speaking to Forbes, Miyamoto recalled working on Galaxy with veteran Mario director Yoshiaki Koizumi — who famously wrote Galaxy’s story in secret after hours, while Miyamoto and other developers weren’t around.
Opening up about that process now, Miyamoto said he and Koizumi had “a lot of discussion” back in the day, but the two never came to an agreement on how it would all play out. Ultimately, Galaxy (the game) leaves Rosalina’s origins mysterious, though fans have long believed the two princesses to be related. Now, more than a decade later, Miyamoto said he was pleased that relationship is finally being fleshed out.
“When we were developing Super Mario Galaxy, the director for that game, Yoshiaki Koizumi, and I were discussing what Rosalina and Peach’s actual relationship was,” Miyamoto said. “We had this vague idea about what their actual relationship could be, and how it would play into the concept of space.
“We had a lot of discussion about this, but we never came to a conclusion. So we decided that let’s take this opportunity to give this idea some meat and get into the specificity of it, and we had a lot of fun having this discussion back and forth.”
Without getting into spoiler territory, it’s safe to say that The Super Mario Galaxy won’t disappoint fans hoping to finally find out more details about Rosalina’s origins, and why the two princesses have always looked alike.
Elsewhere in the same interview, Miyamoto discussed the inclusion of Star Fox hero Fox McCloud in the movie, something that surprised many fans when it was announced by Nintendo last week. Miyamoto revealed that the idea initially came from animation studio Illumination, with Miyamoto asked for his thoughts. The creator of Mario (and Star Fox) was on board with the idea, but then needed to begin “lobbying” at Nintendo.
“As the creator of Star Fox and this movie taking place in space, I felt that I wanted to see that,” Miyamoto said of Fox McCloud’s inclusion. “I wanted to see what it would be like, but I also felt that there may be significant resistance internally about that idea, so after I got this proposal, I contacted the necessary parties involved and started my lobbying activity here at Nintendo.
“However, I was surprised to find that a lot of people saw a lot of potential with it and were really excited to see what would come out of this.”
As for how Twisters star Glen Powell got cast as Fox, Illumination boss Chris Meledandri revealed that the actor had actually pitched to play the character in a standalone movie, unaware that conversations were already underway within Nintendo about his appearance in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
“[Powell] explained that we had to understand how deeply he loved the character of Fox McCloud,” Meledandri said. “His dream was one day to be part of a Star Fox movie. I’m listening to this going, ‘he has no idea that Miyamoto-san and I are talking about Star Fox being in this new movie,’ and Glen is expressing this passion for this.”
“I will say that the team that’s working on the movie, including the actors, there are a lot of Mario fans,” Miyamoto concluded, hinting at the potential for multiple future Mario movies (plural) in future. “From them, there are a lot of ideas about wanting to use different characters, almost to the point that we couldn’t fit everything in. So we’re really looking forward to creating more films.”
On the subject of further movies, Bowser voice actor Jack Black has suggested the third Super Mario Movie will arrive in 2029, a date which would likely mean there will be a big Nintendo movie in theaters every year for the remainder of the decade.
Next year will see the launch of Nintendo’s live-action The Legend of Zelda movie, currently set to debut on May 7, 2027. Then there’s that leaked Donkey Kong spinoff, which would make sense to arrive in 2028 following a two-year break for Nintendo’s big screen animated adventures — and as a lead-up to the third Super Mario Movie.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
