Glen Powell Might Be The Perfect Voice For Fox, Actually

When Nintendo and Illumination cast Chris Pratt as Mario for The Super Mario Bros. Movie, it became perfectly reasonable to fear every other casting choice could be equally misguided. Now, whenever a new character from Nintendo’s games is revealed to be appearing in the films, fans are going to brace themselves for bad news. This morning, however, we didn’t find out the voice of a Mario character; instead we learned that Fox McCloud from Star Fox will be voiced by Twisters star Glen Powell when he debuts in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and fans are warming up to the idea pretty quickly.

Though we haven’t heard Powell’s performance yet, fans have been pulling clips from his previous roles and the actor’s voice actually does kind of fit Fox, unlike, say Pratt as Mario or Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, who did nothing to change his voice to fit the character. Powell has a bit of a southern twang and swagger to his voice, likely from living in Texas, and he’s got the “seasoned, weary pilot” vibe down to a science in Top Gun: Maverick. Funnily enough, and I didn’t know this until today, Powell is apparently a licensed pilot after going to flight school courtesy of his Maverick co-star Tom Cruise. I’m choosing to believe this helped prepare him for the role as Fox, who pilots spacecrafts in his games. In just a few clips, you can already hear how Powell will likely play the anthropomorphic space pilot when The Super Mario Galaxy Movie premieres on April 1.

Still, as fitting as the casting may be, the first Super Mario Bros. Movie was pretty much a reference-ridden winkfest, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Powell just ends up having to recite a bunch of lines from the games. And as it turns out, a lot of the more iconic line deliveries in the Star Fox franchise have come from Fox’s crew, rather than from the leading man himself. The most obvious is “Do a barrel roll,” which is said by Peppy Hare, Fox’s mentor. I doubt the movie’s creators could resist shoving it into the script somehow, whether that be by having Fox say it or having someone tell Fox to do the maneuver while he’s flying them somewhere. Falco’s “Hey, Einstein, I’m on your side” is also a good one, and another line someone will probably say to Fox rather than Powell reciting it himself. Also, Wolf’s “I can’t let you do that, Star Fox” is an easy pull. The one line I fully expect Powell to have to say is “Let’s rock and roll,” which is one of Fox’s more memorable, cheesy lines from Star Fox 64 as he flies into battle.

While the voice might sound right, it will ultimately come down to how Nintendo and Illumination choose to play Fox off of the rest of the cast. Mario is the straight man to a lot of the first film’s chaos, and I can imagine that, if Fox is a pretty serious, edgy, cool guy with an attitude who out-heros Mario, it could make for a funny dynamic between the two. After listening to Powell’s voice work, I’m at least convinced that if he doesn’t nail his performance as Fox McCloud it will be a problem with the direction, rather than the actor not having the chops.