What The Cast Of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie Looks Like In Real Life

"The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" is finally here, continuing the story fans loved in 2023's "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" — and, of course, making full characters out of Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Bowser, the beloved figures from Nintendo's storied game franchise. So who voices these characters, and what do they look like in real life?

First things first. "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie," without getting into any big spoilers, picks up shortly after the first one ends — and in that inaugural movie, Mario (Chris Pratt), his brother Luigi (Charlie Day), and their new friend Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) manage to defeat the destructive dinosaur Bowser (Jack Black) and shrink him down to a teeny-tiny size so he stops wreaking havoc on the universe. In this movie, Bowser's ambitious son Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie) decides he needs to rescue his dad from the good guys and capture a princess in the process, but he's not trying to kidnap Peach; elsewhere, Mario and Luigi open up a blocked warp pipe and discover their new friend and ally Luigi (Donald Glover), a friendly green dinosaur who will eat just about anything.

"The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" boasts a seriously star-studded cast, including one Emmy winner and one Oscar winner — so what do they look like in real life? 

We all know who Mario is, right? A plumber canonically from Brooklyn who, shortly into the first movie, ends up shoved through a warp pipe with his brother Luigi, Mario is a friendly, stout little guy who can jump, fight, and even soar through the air. Plus, like pretty much all of the other franchise's main characters, he can ingest power-up mushrooms at pretty much every time, seriously amplifying his already impressive arsenal of powers.

Like Mario, we're all likely familiar with Pratt, who got his start on teen shows like "The O.C." and "Everwood" before his breakthrough role as the lovable dolt Andy Dwyer on Michael Schur's wonderful ensemble comedy "Parks and Recreation." Partway through playing Andy, Pratt took on his biggest role to date as Peter Quill, the rascal who styles himself as "Star-Lord," in James Gunn's 2014 Marvel smash "Guardians of the Galaxy" — and he's reprised the role throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including in two "Guardians" sequels. Beyond that, Pratt leads the "Jurassic World" series, voiced the titular orange cat in 2024's "The Garfield Movie," and recently appeared in the sci-fi thriller "Mercy."

If you know Mario — and let's be honest, you do — you know his taller, skinner brother Luigi, voiced in this movie franchise by Charlie Day. While Mario rushes headfirst into the action without hesitating, Luigi is definitely a little more skittish but just as brave, and throughout "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie," he frequently teams up with his new cohort Yoshi. (They do both look great in green, after all.)

Day is, of course, one of the original stars and executive producers of the long-running FXX series "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," a show about five cretins running a downtrodden bar in the City of Brotherly Love. On that series, Day plays Charlie Kelly, a deeply disturbed but unfortunately hilarious guy who can't read and is also somehow a piano prodigy — something we learn when he writes a musical to win over the unnamed Waitress that he regularly stalks (Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Day's real-life wife since 2006). Aside from "Always Sunny," Day has popped up in a ton of huge movies including "Horrible Bosses" and "Pacific Rim," lent his voice to "The LEGO Movie," and made his directorial debut in 2022 with the comedy "Fool's Paradise."

The Mario franchise, as a whole, might center around "saving the princess," but Anya Taylor-Joy's Princess Peach is hardly in need of saving. In both "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" and "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie," Peach handily proves that she's perfectly capable of protecting herself, using the same tricks, jumps, and status boosters as Mario and Luigi to make sure she outwits and outlasts her enemies. In "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie," because Peach isn't the target of any kidnapping attempts, she gets to be a bigger part of the action as the gang tries to rescue someone else entirely.

Taylor-Joy is, of course, one of the most celebrated actors of her generation. After Robert Eggers cast her as his lead actress in his hit 2015 horror movie "The Witch," everyone took notice ... and before long, she was appearing in massive movies like "Split," its sequel "Glass," and the Jane Austen adaptation "Emma." Then, the Netflix series "The Queen's Gambit," which casts Taylor-Joy as chess prodigy Beth Harmon, made her a household name and an Emmy nominee; after that, she headlined the deliciously nasty satire "The Menu" and played a younger version of Charlize Theron's character in George Miller's prequel "Furiosa."

Princess Peach isn't the only royal in need of rescuing in the "Super Mario" animated movies now; she's got Princess Rosalina by her side, voiced by Brie Larson. As "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" opens, we see Rosalina reading bedtime stories to living stars called Lumas, who we learn are her adopted children ... but during these stories, her castle is attacked by Bowser Jr., and she's kidnapped. Without spoiling anything big, we learn that Rosalina is an extremely powerful princess, and her particular powers can be exploited by Bowser Jr. and his dad.

You might have seen Larson first in the star-studded cast of "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World," and two years after that, she appeared alongside Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum in the unexpectedly great comedy reboot "21 Jump Street." Larson is also an Oscar winner thanks to "Room" in 2015, which cast her as a young woman who raises her son in captivity; in 2019, she officially joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Carol Danvers, a pilot otherwise known as Captain Marvel, with her eponymous film releasing that year. Larson has reprised the role in other Marvel movies — including in "Avengers" films alongside Chris Pratt — and in 2023, she led the Apple TV series "Lessons in Chemistry."

Bowser, as any Mario player knows, is the series' big bad villain who's always trying to kidnap the princess — and in games like, say, the "Mario Party" series, he shows up to wreak havoc while you're trying to play against your friends. Bowser is also King of the Koopas, meaning that he controls the vast army of Koopas (another classic game villain), and he's got a big crush on Princess Peach; he even tried to marry her at the end of "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" before he got shrunk down.

After originating the voice role of Bowser in "The Super Mario Bros. Movie," Jack Black returned for the sequel, and we're glad he did — even though the sound team definitely plays with the vocal performances in this film, you can hear Black's comedic sensibility in every single line reading. Black is a comedy legend, in case you somehow weren't aware, who's led everything from "School of Rock" to "The Holiday" to "Nacho Libre" to the ongoing "Jumanji" reboot franchise ... and while voicing Bowser in the "Super Mario" movies, he also stars in the "Minecraft" movies, proving he can "play" two different video game characters at once.

After big Bowser gets neutralized at the end of "The Super Mario Bros. Movie," the responsibility falls to his son Bowser Jr., who could also be referred to as baby Bowser (he does, quite literally, wear a bib with teeth on it everywhere). Bowser Jr., as he proves by kidnapping Rosalina, is desperate to impress his dad and carry on his questionable legacy, but he takes some things too far even for Bowser at certain points during "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie." So who voices Bowser Jr.?

That would be Benny Safdie, who rose to fame and acclaim as one half of the Safdie brothers directing duo alongside his brother Josh. Together, the Safdies directed stressful indie movies like "Good Time" (with Robert Pattinson) and "Uncut Gems" (with Adam Sandler), but recently, the two have been working separately. While Josh Safdie directed the 2026 Oscar nominee "Marty Supreme," Benny Safdie has been stepping in front of the camera, appearing in the TV series "The Curse" with Emma Stone and Nathan Fielder, Paul Thomas Anderson's Oscar-nominated drama "Licorice Pizza," Christopher Nolan's best picture winner "Oppenheimer," and the Judy Blume adaptation featuring Rachel McAdams, "Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret." He also directed "The Smashing Machine," a 2025 drama that stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Emily Blunt, in his first solo venture as a director.

If you know Mario and Luigi, you definitely know Yoshi — and he might even be your favorite. There's not a whole lot to know about Yoshi besides the fact that he's a green dinosaur who can eat almost anything and serve as a noble steed for Mario in moments of need. He also only really says one word: his own name. So who, uh, "voices" this vitally important character who makes his debut in "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie?"

That would be multitalented star Donald Glover, who rose to prominence as a writer for "30 Rock" and as a series regular on Dan Harmon's sitcom "Community" before striking out on his own. As an actor, producer, writer, and director, Glover has created hits like "Atlanta" and appeared in shows like "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," and as a musician, he performs as Childish Gambino, the man behind songs like "This is America" and "Redbone." He's also popped up in movies like "Solo: A Star Wars Story" (in the role Billy Dee Williams originated, Lando Calrissian) and "The Martian," and voicing Yoshi isn't his first brush with voice acting — he provided the voice for Simba in the live-action version of "The Lion King" and its sequel "Mufasa: The Lion King." As of this writing, Glover is the winner of five Grammy Awards and two Emmy Awards, so getting him to play Yoshi was a pretty big deal.

A major supporting character in the "Super Mario" games and movies, Toad is one of many living mushrooms who populates the Mushroom Kingdom, but this particular anthropomorphic mushroom is special ... because he's Peach's right hand man. When Peach secretly leaves the Mushroom Kingdom to find Rosalina — and puts Mario and Luigi in charge — she brings Toad with her, knowing he'll protect her at all costs. So who provides the voice for Toad in both movies?

Sketch comedy legend Keegan-Michael Key returns to "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" as Toad, and even though he's doing a silly voice to play the diminutive mushroom, you'll definitely recognize this guy in real life. As half of the legendary sketch comedy duo Key & Peele, who headlined their own Comedy Central show of the same name from 2012 to 2015, Key worked alongside his close friend and comedy partner Jordan Peele (yes, that Jordan Peele) for years, and when Peele shifted into writing and directing, Key kept performing. Across the years, Key has appeared in TV shows like "Parks and Recreation," "Friends from College," "Reboot," and "Schmigadoon!" and movies like "Don't Think Twice," "Transformers One," "Toy Story 4," and more.

Every villain needs a loyal henchman, and in "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" and its predecessor "The Super Mario Bros. Movie," that responsibility falls to Kamek — a Magikoopa voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson. Kamek doesn't do that much (though he does get briefly eaten by Yoshi and is rehatched out of an egg), but Richardson, the man who voices him, put a lot of thought and intention into this role. In an interview about creating the voices in the "Super Mario" movies with Win.gg, Richardson revealed his inspiration. "I had no idea what I was going to do. Luckily the first voice that came out of me they liked," he said of the audition process. "So I stuck with that! Peter Lorre is what I used as an inspiration for that." 

If Richardson's voice sounds familiar, that's because this veteran voice actor has been in basically everything. Richardson provides multiple voices in "Family Guy," "The Simpsons," "Futurama," "American Dad!" and also voices Goro in 1995's "Mortal Kombat" and 2020's sequel "Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge." Elsewhere, you've heard Richardson in the 2012 take on "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," as Bulkhead in "Transformers: Prime," as the Deus ex Machina in "The Matrix Revolutions," and as the Joker in "The Batman" (the TV series, not the Matt Reeves movie).

Wart doesn't play a huge role in "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie," but — without getting into any major specifics — he does play a pretty important albeit small part as a protagonist. So who voices Wart, and why does he sound so familiar?

Luis Guzmán is an actor that some people might call a "that guy" actor, in that he's sort of everywhere. It actually might, on some level, be easier to list projects in which Guzmán has not appeared. Still, we'll give it a shot: the venerated Puerto Rican actor and comedian has been working since 1977 whose film credits include (but are in no way limited to) "Carlito's Way," "Boogie Nights," "Out of Sight," "Magnolia," "Traffic," "Punch-Drunk Love," "The Taking of Pelham 123," "We're the Millers," and "You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah." On the small screen, you've probably seen Guzmán on shows like VH1's "decades" series ("I Love the '70s" and so on), "Community," "Narcos," and "Shameless" — and since 2022, Guzmán has played Gomez Addams to Catherine Zeta Jones's Morticia on the Netflix original series "Wednesday."

A particularly fun surprise revealed in some of the trailers for "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" was the mere presence of Fox McCloud, the snarky and enterprising protagonist of the "Star Fox" video games and franchise. Fox ends up lending an invaluable hand to Peach, Toad, Luigi, Yoshi, and Mario during their journey, and thankfully, the movie found the perfect voice for this cocksure pilot: Glen Powell.

Powell comes by this role naturally — after all, he played a fighter jet pilot in the acclaimed 2022 legacy sequel "Top Gun: Maverick" — but he also has a phenomenal voice for this performance, which actually does mark the all-star actor's first-ever voice role. So where have you physically seen Powell? If we're talking about the past few years, the answer is actually "everywhere." After initially making his film debut as the bizarre character Long-Fingered Boy in "Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over," Powell rose to fame and acclaim thanks to projects like "Set It Up" and "Everybody Wants Some!!!" before becoming a huge star in his own right. Besides the aforementioned "Top Gun: Maverick," Powell has headlined huge hits like "Hit Man" (which reunited him with his "Everybody Wants Some!!!" director Richard Linklater, with whom Powell co-wrote the film), "Anyone But You," the legacy sequel "Twisters," and Edgar Wright's 2025 take on "The Running Man."

"The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" is in theaters now.