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Watch Jack Black's hilarious Superman audition while we wait for his big screen Bowser in 'Mario' movie
If this is the final boss, well…Kryptonite probably won’t be much help.
Look, we’ve played a lot of Nintendo in our day…but we’ve never seen a final boss quite like this. Out of his shell as the voice of super-baddie Bowser in the upcoming The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Jack Black is having some social media fun with the role — or, more specifically, all the superhero stuff he definitely won’t be doing as the movie’s fire-breathing Koopa antagonist.
Black stars as himself in a joyfully low-fi video short he posted this week at Instagram, sporting his best Nick Offerman beard as he lazes on some suspiciously out-of-place veranda furniture in a public park. A ringing cell phone yanks Black out of his Princess Peach-stealing dreams, with none other than newly-minted DC Studios chief James Gunn on the other end to inquire, uhm, about Black’s superhero casting availability. “What’s up, Jamie-Jamie Gunn-Gunn?!” croons Black like the devil-may-care Tenacious D rock star he is: “I was just taking a nap-ski!”
RELATED: When does ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ open? Theatrical release date moves up to April 5
We’re miles away from Mario movie magic here, as Black sorta-graciously declines Gunn’s offer...only to reveal a super-secret he’s been hiding beneath that mangy blanket.
Check it out:
Yep, that’s a sight of Superman that you just can’t unsee. Black tosses aside his public-sleeping threads to surprise the whole world (though Gunn’s probably none the wiser) that he’s secretly been concealing his double identity as the Man of Steel himself. Complete with Clark Kent’s iconic “S” symbol stretching across his burly frame, Black leaps into the sky and starts raining down heat vision on hapless unseen baddies below, all backed by the kind of improvised visual effects you’re guaranteed never to see in any comic book blockbuster.
It’s safe to say you might get away with tugging on Superman’s cape so long as Black’s the guy who’s wearing it, but there’s no such overconfidence about taking on Black’s upcoming role as Mario’s flame-haired Mushroom Kingdom nemesis. If you know your Super Mario Bros. (and who doesn’t?), you know there’s no boss bigger than Bowser, a hulking spike-shelled reptilian menace with a serious thing for kidnapping princesses and sewing general discord in Mario and Luigi’s world.
Black’s just one of the reasons we’re powered up about The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which features a cartoonishly great cast of stars set to shine in Universal Pictures’ new animated Mario galaxy. Chris Pratt brings his comedic chops to the main mustachioed role of Mario himself, with It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia cutup Charlie Day along for the ride as super-bro Luigi. The rest of the cast is no pipe dream, either, featuring the vocal talents of Anya Taylor-Joy (Princess Peach), Keegan-Michael Key (Toad), Seth Rogen (Donkey Kong), Fred Armisen (Cranky Kong), Sebastian Maniscalco (Foreman Spike), Kevin Michael Richardson (Kamek), and even original Mario video game voice actor Charles Martinet — who’s set to make a surprise cameo somewhere in the film.
Superman may be weak to Kryptonite, but there’s no telling what it’ll take to bring down Black as Bowser when Mario and the rest of the gang bop onto the big screen this spring. We’re boning up on our platform-jumping skills now: The Super Mario Bros. Movie is set to skip into theaters nationwide starting Wednesday, April 5. Pick up tickets right now from Fandango.
