Glen Powell was cast as Fox McCloud in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie after calling Nintendo and Illumination directly: "His dream was to one day be part of a Star Fox movie"

Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri says Glen Powell was cast as Fox McCloud in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie after the actor called up the studio directly.

"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," Meledandri told Forbes. "He explained that we had to understand how deeply he loved the character of Fox McCloud. 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."

Meledandri added that he and Shigeru Miyamoto both felt that there was a natural "Glen Powell kind of attitude to the character, and he feels perfectly suited to that role."

Fox McCloud made his debut in the 1993 SNES game Star Fox, and would go on to star in a number of subsequent games before going on to become one of the many playable Nintendo characters in every single edition of Super Smash Bros. His surprise appearance in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie was identified by eagle-eyed fans who were able to spot his leg in the corner of a screen grab from the first trailer.

We knew Powell was an avid video game player, especially after he expressed a huge interest in joining the cast of the upcoming Expedition 33 movie... we just didn't know how deep his love for Nintendo went.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is in theaters now. For more, check out our Super Mario Galaxy Movie review or dive into our Super Mario Galaxy Movie Easter eggs guide.