Nintendo’s Super Mario Galaxy Movie announcement has sent fans rushing back to the first Mario film, and a teasing scene that appears to set up the freshly-announced sequel.
This scene, coupled with the fact Nintendo looks likely to adapt the plot of the Mario Galaxy video game, has prompted fan speculation that we’re about to see a major piece of Super Mario lore confirmed, following decades of debate.
Super Mario Galaxy centers on the character of Rosalina, a space princess that Nintendo itself has said shares similarities with Princess Peach. Within the first Galaxy game, Rosalina’s backstory is revealed through pages of a storybook, with her journey through the stars explained as her searching for her long-lost parents.
Rosalina’s parentage is kept vague, with her mother pictured but kept largely obscured. But Nintendo is said to have once planned a more concrete backstory that linked Rosalina and the Mushroom Kingdom, with her being related to Princess Peach in some way.
Years later, eagle-eyed fans spotted a mysterious tease within 2023’s Super Mario Bros. Movie, in a scene which sees Peach discuss her origins, and reveal how she first arrived in the Mushroom Kingdom.
“You don’t seem like you’re from here,” Mario says.
“I don’t know where I’m from,” Peach replies. “My earliest memory is arriving,” she continues, as a flashback shows her, aged as a toddler, turning up in the Mushroom Kingdom via a warp pipe. Dressed in a skirt decorated with stars and moons, she is quickly found by a group of Toads. “I was so lucky they found me. They took me in, raised me like one of their own, and when I was ready they made me their princess.”
“Maybe you’re from my world?” Mario suggests, though Peach seems to disagree.
“There’s a huge universe out there, with a lot of galaxies,” she hints, as the camera pulls back to focus on the night sky.
This is a moment some fans believe is a nod towards Peach’s own galactic origins — and with it, the link between her and Rosalina that Nintendo ultimately shied away from confirming long ago.
Mario games are not known for their story, and Super Mario Galaxy’s director Yoshiaki Koizumi has admitted he wrote Galaxy’s storybook in secret each evening, after other developers had left the office. Ultimately, he surprised even Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto with the idea, and an adapted version of his plans was ultimately included.
Without further detail on that link between the two characters, and with Nintendo seemingly keen to keep things vague, fans have been left to debate whether Peach might have once been planned as Rosalina’s mother (or even the other way around), or alternatively if the pair were intended as siblings.
Has Nintendo now softened its stance on keeping Rosalina’s story a secret? Last week’s Nintendo Direct also provided some clues. Koizumi and Miyamoto both appeared, with the former announcing a physical version of Galaxy’s storybook as a tie-in product, and that additional storybook pages would be included for the first time in the Switch 2 re-releases of Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2.
With the Super Mario Galaxy Movie headed into space next year, fans may finally get some answers.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
