John Leguizamo blasts Super Mario Bros movie casting

by Dan Cooper |
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One half of the original Super Mario Bros from the 1993 live action film has spoken out about the lack of diversity in the new film’s casting. The casting for the new animated Super Mario Bros. film, coming to us courtesy of Nintendo and Illumination, has already been the subject of discussion and ridicule online, with the decision to cast an all-white ensemble in the film’s lead roles coming under fire for ignoring the famous plumber’s Italian roots. Now, John Leguizamo, who played Luigi in the original 1993 live action version of the film, has added his voice to the dissent, stating: ‘So glad #superMariobros is getting a reboot! Obviously it’s iconic enuff. But too bad they went all white! No Latinx in the leads! Groundbreaking colour-blind casting in the original!’ Whilst the casting announcements for the film does look fun, there has certainly been a negative reaction too, with other fans disappointed that original Mario voice actor, Charles Martinet, will only be featuring in a cameo, and not as Mario himself. Whilst it’s unlikely that anything will change, the casting announcement certainly wan’t the unqualified success that Nintendo would have been hoping for. As for that cast, Chris Pratt will star as Mario, alongside Anya Taylor-Joy as Peach. Jack Black will play Bowser whilst Keegan-Michael Key will play everybody’s favourite humanoid mushroom person, Toad, whilst Seth Rogen will feature as Donkey Kong. The film itself is set to release in December of next year. We’ll bring you more updates as we hear them. — Thank you for visiting! If you’d like to support our attempts to make a non-clickbaity movie website: Follow Film Stories on Twitter here, and on Facebook here. Buy our Film Stories and Film Stories Junior print magazines here. Become a Patron here.
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