While some Nintendo fans expected Mario’s next cinematic adventure to explore the wider world of the Mushroom Kingdom and give us more time with Yoshi, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is sequence breaking the franchise right into space. And that shouldn’t really be a surprise if you watched The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which already has its fair share of Super Mario Galaxy references. (Remember breakout star Lumalee?)
Those allusions to the Super Mario Galaxy games could point to an upcoming reveal about Princess Peach’s origin story, and her ties to another princess, Rosalina, who is sure to be a big part of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie teased Peach’s origins back in 2023, when she revealed to Mario that she doesn’t know where she hails from. Her earliest memory is arriving via warp pipe to the Mushroom Kingdom as a toddler and being raised by Toads, who ultimately crowned her as their ruler. When Mario posits that maybe she’s from his world — aka Brooklyn — she offers an alternative theory: “There’s a huge universe out there, with a lot of galaxies,” Peach says.
One widely disseminated theory, put forth by The Game Theorists a decade ago, is that Peach is Rosalina’s mother. But given their respective ages (and for the sake of story simplicity in a movie for children), it’s more likely that Peach and Rosalina are sisters or cousins. Both princesses lived among a people unlike them; Peach with Toads, and Rosalina with the Luma, who regarded her as their mother.
It’s clear that Nintendo is going all-in on Rosalina in the coming year. In addition to re-releasing Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2 for Switch, along with a new Rosalina amiibo, Nintendo is selling a physical version of Rosalina’s storybook from Galaxy — with additional pages. Rosalina even appears to be coming to Super Mario Bros. Wonder, as revealed (or rather leaked) in a trailer for the game’s upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 Edition.
(Rosalina is seen very briefly two minutes into the above trailer for Super Mario Bros. Wonder Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park.)
If Nintendo does confirm some sort of familial relationship between princesses Peach and Rosalina, it would be — in Super Mario terms — a pretty big deal. Nintendo typically keeps its canon pretty light, and seems to ignore previous revelations like Yoshi’s “real name” and Mario bullying Wario when they were boys. When Nintendo does try to reckon with canon, we wind up with things like the convoluted Legend of Zelda timeline.
But in the Super Mario movie universe, things can be different. The Super Mario Bros. Movie gave us an officially sanctioned look at Mario and Luigi’s mom, dad, and extended family, after all.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie will be released on April 3, 2026.
