Yesterday, Nintendo announced that Fox McCloud, the protagonist of the kind of dead but still very much beloved space flight shooter series Star Fox, will appear in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Fans weren’t happy to have the surprise ruined ahead of time, but this does seemingly confirm the film is creating some kind of shared Nintendo Cinematic Universe similar to the one Marvel’s been cultivating over the past two decades. But one thing we didn’t know was who would be voicing the anthropomorphic fox pilot, which was surprising considering how much Nintendo and Illumination love hyping up these movie’s all-star voice cast. Now, we know that Glen Powell, known for his acting in big movies like Top Gun: Maverick and Twisters, will be the voice of Fox in the film.
Powell posted a video on his Instagram account announcing that he would be taking on the role this morning, just about 24 hours after Nintendo and Illumination confirmed the character’s appearance in the film.
Powell joins the stacked cast of newcomers, including Brie Larson as Rosalina, Donald Glover as Yoshi, and Benny Safdie as Bowser Jr. This follows these movie’s trend of picking big celebrity actors to play Nintendo’s characters rather than using the actors who play them in the games. Fox has been played by several actors over the years, with Mike West playing the character in most of his appearances in both his own games and in the most recent Super Smash Bros. games. Though we know Powell is voicing the space pilot in the movie, we have yet to hear his performance in any of the trailers. Maybe Nintendo and Illumination will actually keep that part under wraps until the movie premieres next week on April 1.