Internet Reacts To Fox McCloud In The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

Nintendo and Illumination decided to casually spoil one of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’s big surprises by sharing a poster of Star Fox’s own Fox McCloud as he will appear in the film when it premieres next week. This obviously raises a lot of questions about both the nature of the animated Mario movies and whether we might be working our way up to a Super Smash Bros.-style movie down the line. But the biggest question on most folks’ minds is “Why the hell did Nintendo announce this?”

If you read the comments on Kotaku’s story on the announcement, you’ll see some folks are pissed at us for “spoiling” something Nintendo and Illumination announced on very visible social media channels. But I’ll take this as people lashing out at the movie’s marketing team by proxy. I’m in Boston for PAX East this week, and have heard multiple attendees running up to each other asking if they’d heard the news, and being annoyed that this was announced to begin with. Still, the reveal isn’t entirely out of left field, as we’ve previously seen R.O.B. and the Pikmin in trailers and marketing materials, so it was already clear that the Galaxy Movie would be dabbling in crossing over with multiple series.

It does make me worry that the movie might feel a bit busy as it crams in nods to characters from throughout Nintendo’s catalog, but the first one was already a reference-ridden nostalgia fest, so I guess they’re just stepping on the gas for the sequel. I don’t really expect great animated filmmaking from the same studio responsible for the Minions, but I am kind of bummed that Nintendo seems content to make its big-screen projects essentially 90-minute museum tours of its long history. For now, the Internet feels a bit disoriented by the announcement, both because of its content and for the fact that it was announced before the movie’s release at all. But as the internet does, it’s at least sorting through its feelings with a sense of humor.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie comes to theaters on April 1. Place your bets on what other Nintendo characters might show up in the post-credits scene. My money’s on Kirby.