Glen Powell Joins The Super Mario Galaxy Movie As Fan-Favorite Smash Bros. Character

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie drops next week, and it’s got a wildly star-studded cast. Captain Marvel’s Brie Larson is Rosalina, Uncut Gems co-director Benny Safdie is Bowser Jr., and even Yoshi is voiced by Emmy and Grammy winner Donald Glover. Yesterday, however, a new character was announced to be in the movie, and while some fans were frustrated with Nintendo for revealing the character’s existence so close to the movie’s premiere, it did raise an unavoidable question: who’s voicing them? Today, we learned the answer: Glen Powell.

If you want to avoid spoilers, now’s your official warning, as we’re going to speak plainly about the new character from this point forward.

Super Mario Galaxy Movie Character Spoilers Ahead

If you caught our story yesterday, you know that Fox McCloud from the Star Fox series is (somehow) appearing in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and now we know the character will be played by Glen Powell. While Powell has been acting since his appearance in Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over in 2003 (yeah, that’s him! Look it up!), he’s recently grown in prominence thanks to his appearance in Top Gun: Maverick, which he followed up with leading roles in films like Anyone But You, Hit Man, and Twisters.

The actor seems like a good choice to voice Fox, partially because of the audience’s real-world knowledge that Powell was also in Top Gun, so any scenes of Fox doing loop-de-loops or a barrel roll with Powell’s voice will feel familiar. 

In Powell’s Instagram video confirming the news, he certainly seems enthusiastic. The brief clip shows him hopping through a movie theater, with light special effects illuminating a rainbow trail behind him while the Mario invincibility star theme plays in the background. When he finally makes his way to the front of the theater, where the camera is filming, we finally get a good enough look at him to see he’s wearing Fox’s signature vest, and he strikes a dramatic pose. The music switches to a fanfare from Star Fox, and the name “Fox McCloud” appears on the screen.

As for what role Fox might play in the animated film, we have no clue. Since he doesn’t typically share a universe with Mario, fans have been quick to theorize that his presence might lead to a crossover Smash Bros. film down the line, and while that certainly makes sense from a business perspective, we’ve yet to see how his appearance is justified in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Luckily, we won’t have to speculate much longer: The Super Mario Galaxy Movie drops on April 1, next Wednesday.