Days before the release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, fans were introduced to a horrifying Super Mario Bros. theory that was part of the game’s lore in 1996. And with the animated adaptation soon making its way to theaters, the film’s lead stars Chris Pratt and Charlie Day shared their thoughts on this very morbid backstory.
To recap, it was revealed in the 1996 Super Mario 64 manga that the 1-up Mushrooms in the game originated from the dead Mario bodies. This meant that whenever Mario in the games eats those mushrooms, he’s technically committing self-cannibalism. Fortunately, this information has since been deemed non-canon by Nintendo, but it is morbid, to say the least, to know that it was once part of official Mario lore.
Pratt and Day were made aware of this horrifying piece of now-unofficial lore in the franchise in an interview with ComicBook.com. Both actors responded to the theory in a horrified tone, and why wouldn’t they if what they learned is much more morbid compared to the cordyceps in The Last of Us? Pratt revealed that after hearing that was a thing was enough that he no longer want to each mushrooms anymore.
“That makes me want to eat mushrooms even less. That’s really amazing that you found that.”
Meanwhile, Day wondered if hundreds of dead Mario bodies are buried across the Mushroom Kingdom. Regardless of the answer, he doesn’t want his children to be exposed to this information.
“That makes me wonder if they’re having burials for these characters because he’s in the Earth with that mushroom growing out of his back. That’s dark, man. Don’t show that to my kid.”
What’s kinda horrifying is that both Pratt and Day play the iconic Mario brothers and that it’s their bodies that are buried underground, have mushrooms sprouting from their corpses, and are eaten by a reincarnated version of them. Thank goodness Nintendo decided to make that piece of information out of the Mushroom Kingdom’s lore completely.
While the Mario bros won’t be eating mushrooms grown from their corpses, Mario will be receiving his fair share of growth mushrooms in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, that’s scheduled to come out on April 5, 2023.