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SYFY WIRE super mario bros.

Chris Pratt teases his Mario voice, ponders what it would take to return to 'Jurassic' franchise

Chris Pratt is bringing something new to everyone's favorite plumber.

By Matthew Jackson
(from left) Kayla Watts (DeWanda Wise) and Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) in Jurassic World Dominion.

Chris Pratt remains busy as ever. The Guardians of the Galaxy star just launched the box office champion Jurassic World Dominion, he's preparing for the release of Thor: Love and Thunder, and his upcoming projects include everything from a sequel to The Tomorrow War to the long-awaited Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

But Pratt's not just staying on the big-screen in live-action form. He's also still flexing the voiceover skills he got to show off in films like The LEGO Movie thanks to two upcoming, high-profile projects. Late last year, we learned that Pratt is set to voice everyone's favorite fat cat, Garfield, in a new movie take on the character, but just before that news dropped, he landed yet another iconic animated role. Pratt is also set to voice Mario in a new Super Mario Bros. movie from Nintendo, and now he's teasing that when it comes to his take on the legendary plumber, we should expect the unexpected.

Speaking to Variety on the red carpet for his new Amazon Prime Video series The Terminal List this week, Pratt offered a brief tease of his work on Mario with directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic (Teen Titans Go!), and described the process like this:

“I worked really closely with the directors and trying out a few things and landed on something that I’m really proud of and can’t wait for people to see and hear,” Pratt said. “It’s an animated voiceover narrative. It’s not a live-action movie. I’m not gonna be wearing a plumber suit running all over. I’m providing a voice for an animated character, and it is updated and unlike anything you’ve heard in the Mario world before.”

The Mario film, with a supporting cast that includes Charlie Day as Luigi and Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, is set to hit theaters next spring, amid several other major projects for Pratt. It'll be very interesting to see what exactly Pratt and the filmmakers have done that's "unlike anything" Mario has ever given us before, but since we're talking about animators who worked on Teen Titans Go!, we know it could be just about anything. 

In the meantime, Pratt also addressed the possibility of even more sequel potential in the Jurassic World franchise, where he just wrapped up three films as raptor trainer and dinosaur conservationist Owen Grady. Though he noted that his leg of the franchise "felt like a trilogy," he also wouldn't rule out returning to the character one day, under the right circumstances. 

“I’d have to read the script,” Pratt said. “I can think of a million ways to contrive bringing Owen back, but I would want it to be authentic and real and be worthy of the story. I would say no, but I guess you can’t rule it out 1,000%.”

If we've learned anything in the past 30 years, it's that you can never rule out dinosaurs stomping through the box office again. 

Jurassic World Dominion is in theaters now. Illumination's untitled Super Mario Brothers film is expected to drop    
April 7, 2023.