Scrapped The Super Mario Bros. Movie Ending Revealed

Nintendo originally planned to include more cameos in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, including a character from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.

Freshly-discovered storyboards from the development of Nintendo’s 2023 blockbuster show how an earlier version of its Peach and Bowser wedding sequence would have unfolded — with even more guests than seen in the final film.

Visiting dignitaries such as Whomp King would have made an appearace, as well as Wart, Mouser, and Birdo — a trio that ultimately turned up in this year’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie instead. Of all the cut cameos, however, perhaps the most surprising is Rawk Hawk — who veteran Mario fans will remember from the GameCube classic Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.

https://twitter.com/SMCONCEPTART/status/2045862353221075417?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Part man, part eagle, all wrestling champion, Rawk Hawk appeared as an antagonist in The Thousand-Year Door’s memorable chapter set in a WWE-style fighting arena. And in an early draft of The Super Mario Movie, fans would have been given a proper glimpse at the papercraft character in 3D — something which sadly was left on the cutting room floor.

While a deep-cut character, the inclusion of Rawk Hawk would have tied in neatly to the Switch’s per Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Remake, which arrived the year after The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Ultimately, it’s unclear why the character was removed, while other cameos in that scene (such as King Bob-omb and King Boo) remained.

The unused storyboards also show a different version of the wedding sequence in which Peach and Toad have a fake argument so that the latter can sneakily hand over the Ice Flower, which Peach then uses to freeze Bowser in the nick of time. Cut dialogue from the pair is pretty funny, as they begin bickering:

“Maybe if the people I led weren’t cowardly little spores, I wouldn’t have to marry him,” Peach says.

“You’re a rotten Peach,” Toad replies.

After the argument is revealed as a ruse and Bowser is frozen, Toad then quips: “It looks like she got cold feet.”

For now, you can watch an animated version of the storyboards via a GameXplain video, though it does appear that Nintendo is already sending its legal ninjas after copies of the storyboard. Images posted to reddit have swiftly been removed, while the portfolio of the artist responsible now displays a 404 message.

Could Rawk Hawk still appear in future? Nintendo is clearly not done making animated movies, considering the success of its Mario films so far. Next up, fans believe, will be the unannounced but leaked Donkey Kong spinoff. After that, it seems inevitable there will be a third Super Mario Movie, which Jack Black seems to think will launch in 2029.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social