Super Mario movie producer defends casting Chris Pratt

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Chris Pratt's casting as Mario in the upcoming animated movie certainly caused a stir when it was first announced – and now producer Chris Meledandri has responded.

"All I can tell you is the voice that he's doing for us, and Mario, is phenomenal," he told Too Fab. "Yeah, I can't wait for people to hear it."

This isn't his first time at the voice acting rodeo – he's previously appeared in animated movies like The LEGO Movie and Onward, but some people questioned the decision to cast someone who isn't Italian in the role of Mario.

Meledandri added: "As an Italian American myself, I understand. You know, I understand the comments. Charlie Day, who's playing Luigi, actually comes from Italian heritage. Yeah, so that's our nod."

Alongside Pratt and Day, the movie's voice cast also includes Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, and Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong.

Meledandri also insisted that Pratt will not be doing a heavy Italian accent, saying: "We cover it in the movie, so you'll see we definitely nod to that."

Mario isn't the actor's only upcoming foray into voice acting – he's also set to voice Garfield, the iconic orange cat, in a new movie. Pratt can next be seen (as well as heard) in Jurassic World 3, and he also has Thor: Love and Thunder and Guardians of the Galaxy 3 on the way, in which he'll reprise his role as Star-Lord, as well as the Prime Video series The Terminal List.

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.