Glen Powell Cold-Called “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” Studio to Pitch Himself for 'Dream' Role as Fox McCloud
Glen Powell Cold-Called “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” Studio to Pitch Himself for 'Dream' Role as Fox McCloud
Yamillah HurtadoWed, April 1, 2026 at 8:05 PM UTC
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Glen Powell in February 2026; and Fox McCloud in 'The Super Mario Galaxy Movie'Credit: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic; Nintendo and Illumination -
Glen Powell cold-called Nintendo and Illumination to pitch himself for the voice of Fox McCloud in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
“He explained that we had to understand how deeply he loved the character of Fox McCloud,” Chris Meledandri, CEO of Illumination and film producer, revealed in a new interview
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie opened in theaters on Wednesday, April 1
Glen Powell was so eager to be a part of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie that he pitched himself to the studio.
The Running Man actor, 37, voices the Nintendo favorite Fox McCloud in the sequel to The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Powell announced his role as the anthropomorphic red fox in an Instagram shared on Friday, March 27, just days before The Super Mario Galaxy Movie hit theaters on April 1.
The video shows Powell skipping around a Super Mario Galaxy-themed movie theater before it cuts to him sporting Fox McCloud’s iconic vest, thus revealing his character in the movie. He captioned the post, “Born to Barrel Roll ⭐🦊 @supermariomovie.”
As a fan of the Mario universe, Powell actually campaigned for the role, a producer on the animated film revealed. “When we were working on the first movie, we began to get phone calls from actors,” CEO of Illumination Chris Meledandri told Forbes in an interview published on Tuesday, March 31. “They started communicating their enthusiasm. After the first movie was done, there were two phone calls that came from actors expressing incredible conviction and passion about being involved with Nintendo, and one of them was from Glen Powell.”
Fox McCloud in Nintendo and Illumination's 'The Super Mario Galaxy Movie'Credit: Nintendo and Illumination
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“He explained that we had to understand how deeply he loved the character of Fox McCloud,” he said. “His dream was one day to be part of a Star Fox movie. I’m listening to this going, ‘He has no idea that Miyamoto-san and I are talking about Star Fox being in this new movie,’ and Glen is expressing this passion for this.”
“What happened was that after we spoke about it, we had decided we wanted Star Fox to appear in this new movie as a surprise,” Meledandri continued. “When I called Glen back, I said, ‘Look, I want you to have a conversation, but it has to be completely secret, you cannot talk it to anyone,’ as no one knew this character would be so close to this movie.”
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He added, “On top of that, we felt that there was a Glen Powell kind of attitude to the character, and he feels perfectly suited to that role. It was one of those gifts.”
Yoshi, Mario and Luigi in Nintendo and Illumination's 'The Super Mario Galaxy Movie'Credit: Nintendo and Illumination
Meledandri revealed Donald Glover also cold-called the studio to pitch himself for the role of Yoshi. “He was like, ‘I need to be involved, if there’s any way with a Nintendo movie,’ ” the producer said. “We loved him as an actor and a creator, as well as a filmmaker, and so he came in, and we sat down, and he said, ‘I will do the most incredible Yoshi.’”
“It was really interesting that these two casting ideas came from the actors themselves,” he noted.
Along with Powell and Glover, 42, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie features several returning cast members, including Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser and Keegan-Michael Key as Toad. Benny Safdie joins the voice ensemble as Bowser Jr. along with Issa Rae as the Honey Queen, Luis Guzmán as Wart, Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek and Brie Larson as Princess Rosalina.
Filmmakers Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, screenwriter Matthew Fogel, and producers Meledandri and video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto returned to the franchise for the sequel.
While details of the plot have not yet been released, the video game follows Mario as he travels throughout outer space and different universes to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is now in theaters.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
