What a shout
With the airing of The Last of Us and the latest season of The Mandalorian, it’s fair to say the start of 2023 has belonged to Pedro Pascal.
And Jack Black reckons Pascal’s next move should be into the world of Super Mario.
Last week saw the Super Mario Bros Movie hit the big screen and, despite lukewarm reviews from critics, it’s been a smash hit at the box office.
The movie – which stars Chris Pratt as Mario, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser and Anya Taylor Joy as Princess Peach – took in $377m (£304m) worldwide on its opening weekend, breaking the record for the biggest ever opening weekend for an animated film.
The film acts as an origin story about how Brooklyn plumbers Mario and Luigi fall into a rogue pipe and end up in the world of Nintendo that gamers of all ages have grown to know and love over the last three decades.
Following the huge success of the film, it wouldn’t be a surprise if film bosses were already thinking about a sequel, and Black was asked how he would feel about returning as Bowser for any future films.
But he said it was no guarantee that Bowser would return as the main villain, suggesting that fans could instead see Mario’s arch nemesis Wario be the focus of a sequel – and he knew the perfect person to voice the role.
Speaking to Game Spot, Black said: “It’s not a given that Bowser will return. You know, I did a few Kung Fu Panda movies, and it was a different villain every movie. They may do the same thing.”
Black continued: “You know, what if there is a more powerful, more evil villain? Then I may need to be turned to help Mario and the rest to defend our universe against some other unseen force of evil. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Wario. Pedro Pascal is Wario.”
Weirdly, Pascal has already had a go at entering the world of Mario – sort of.
Earlier this year, he was involved in a Saturday Night Live sketch that imagined if Mario was the main character in an apocalyptic The Last Of Us-style series.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is in cinemas now.
Related links:
Pedro Pascal has never starred in a series with less than 89% on Rotten Tomatoes
