It takes a lot to convince me to go to a movie theater these days, mainly because a lot of films out there don’t have the grab factor to convince me to shell out $20 for tickets and snacks. However, it looks like 2026 could be a year when the movie industry actually entices me to visit the theaters more than once a year.

It all starts with a pair of plumbers, an army of turtles, a princess and a fungus. I’m talking about the Super Mario Galaxy Movie, the sequel from the highly successful Super Mario Brothers Movie from 2023.

For over 40 years, video games surrounding a pair of plumbers and their adventures in the Mushroom Kingdom—not to mention a few other places—have captivated millions of people, including me. Having Mario and Luigi as my wingmen when I played video games contributed a lot to making me who I am today.

When the first movie came out in 2023, I was a little apprehensive, as efforts had been made previously to bring Mario and Luigi to the big screen via live action. Long story short, it did not go well, and it took decades before officials with Nintendo would greenlight a Hollywood depiction about America’s most beloved plumbers.

Fortunately, my fears proved to be unfounded as I saw characters from a myriad of games, including my favorite, Super Mario 3D World, unfold on the big screen before my very eyes in an amazing animation display. Of course, there have been so many games in the franchise, from the 8-bit original to the first three-dimensional Super Mario 64 to Super Mario Wonder, that all the characters couldn’t be limited to one movie.

Most of the games have always had Bowser, the king of the Koopas, as the main villain. However, there have been a few exceptions, rarities considering many folks like consistency.

One of those exceptions was Super Mario Bros. 2. After a debut game where you stomped your enemies—well, most of them anyway—or threw fireballs at them, Nintendo changed a lot of the dynamics. You could no longer stomp your enemies and instead had to pick them up and throw them. Instead of power-ups like the super mushroom or fire flower, you had a life meter. After facing Bowser in the last movie, the main villain here was Wart.

The second game brought our main characters, plus a couple more, out of the Mushroom Kingdom and instead to Subcon, the world of dreams. Wart and his new minions—an egg-shooting Birdo, a bomb-tossing Mouser and a three-headed fire breathing snake among them—were a sharp contrast to the characters serving the whims of Bowser.

While I personally loved Super Mario Bros. 2, a game my sister and I eagerly played for hours on Christmas Day, it was not the most beloved for other Mario fans and became a game relegated to the back alleys of Nintendo fandom. After the first Mario animated movie came out, I wondered if Nintendo might dare to, at some point in the movie franchise, film something where Wart was a villain.

An obvious question to someone might be why? Why would I want someone besides Bowser to be the sinister mastermind leading chaos in a make-believe world? Well, Wart was a mutated frog with royal robes and a crown who either didn’t like or was allergic to vegetables, and to win the game, you had to shove six of them down his throat as he breathed toxic bubbles at you. It was exciting for 12-year-old me to take Wart down.

I was expecting that Nintendo might bring in Wart in a fourth or fifth movie. Imagine my surprise and delight when I was browsing YouTube one day and saw a video that reported that Wart was going to be in the Super Mario Galaxy Movie. From the trailer, it looks like he’s a sinister boss running a casino in the adventure. Not necessarily the main villain, but it was more than enough for me.

I was going to watch the Super Mario Galaxy Movie regardless of who was a character in it, but validating Wart in the Mario universe when so many have disavowed Super Mario Bros. 2 as a hiccup has given me an added bonus. It’s a chance to see all the games I played come to life and whisk me away on an adventure.

Now, pass the popcorn.