Starfox hero Fox McCloud is part of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Nintendo has just confirmed, sharing a new poster for the film featuring the character.
With less than a week to go until its animated Super Mario Movie follow-up arrives in theaters, Nintendo has chosen to make this major character reveal early, in what will surely be a huge (and hugely welcome) surprise for Starfox fans.
Starfox is, of course, not part of the usual Mushroom Kingdom canon — and has only really hung out with Mario before in the fighting game crossover series Super Smash Bros. But here he is, standing proudly next to his Arwing starship, ready to join in the action alongside Luigi, Peach and Bowser.
Eagle-eyed fans had previously spotted the corner of a character that looked as if it could, just about, maybe, be Star Fox, though the chances of him being involved in the movie seemed slim. Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto has previously told IGN that he wasn’t a fan of characters crossing over between Nintendo franchises (other than his beloved Pikmin, which are also confirmed to be appearing in the film). But apparently Star Fox is another exception.
“In Nintendo there’s sort of like an unwritten rule,” Miyamoto previously told IGN. “Mario needs to stay in the Mario universe, or Splatoon needs to stay in Splatoon, and we don’t use different characters in the same place. But Pikmin has this kind of unwritten rule where they’re okay to appear with other characters.”
It’s been a quiet period for Star Fox fans of late, with no new games since 2016’s Wii U exclusive Star Fox Zero. Developed by Nintendo and PlatinumGames, it arrived to mixed reviews and remains one of the few titles from the Wii U era never to get a Switch port. 2017 meanwhile saw the public release of retro SNES game Star Fox 2, which was completed but never released until the arrival of the SNES Classic Edition microconsole.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie stars Brie Larsen as Rosalina, Donald Glover as Luigi and Benny Safdie as Bowser Jr., alongside the returning cast from the first film: Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, and Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek.
But who’s playing Star Fox? And is this all in anticipation of a new Star Fox game? All may be revealed when The Super Mario Galaxy Movie lands in theaters on April 1.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
