The best Super Mario Bros. Movie red carpet looks were cosplay

By James On Apr 3, 2023

The Super Mario Bros. movie is just around the corner, and some of the voice actors celebrated the film’s Los Angeles premiere by injecting their red carpet looks with a dose of ravishing cosplay.

Anya Taylor-Joy, who voices Peach, rocked a pink leather jumpsuit — including moto-inspired gloves and bright pink boots with Peach’s star badges on the shins — that read like a take on Princess Peach’s Mario Kart outfit.

Jack Black also stole the show in one suit designed to look like Bowser’s shell, complete with spikes on the back and flame details on the jacket and trouser cuffs. Look closely at the shirt and you will see that it is holographic and looks like lizard scales. (A commenter on Jack Black’s Instagram post described the look as “something Guy Fieri would wear to his child’s christening” and I can only interpret this as a compliment.)

Photo: Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images

Jack Black poses with claw-like hands on the red carpet at the LA premiere of The Super Mario Bros. Movie. He wears a suit with Bowser's spikes on the back and a shirt with a holographic print of lizard scales.

Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto also seemed to be a fan of Black’s spikes. For Miyamoto’s part, he wore a colorful, fun Super Mario Bros. movie T-shirt.

Shigeru Miyamoto admires the spikes on Jack Black's red carpet at the premiere of The Super Mario Bros. Movie LA.

Shigeru Miyamoto poses on the red carpet at the premiere of The Super Mario Bros. Movie LA. He wears a black suit and a Super Mario Bros. Movie T Shirt.

Even Chris Pratt and Charlie Day had a little fun, with complementary red and green-tinted suits — honestly, they were more burgundy and emerald green, but I’ll take it. If you have to wear a suit for the The Super Mario Bros. movie red carpet, at least have a little cosplay fun with it. Other cast members were outdone, in their relatively normie red carpet outfits.

Chris Pratt and Charlie Day stand in front of a themed minibus at The Super Mario Bros LA premiere. Pratt is in a deep red suit and Day is in a deep green suit, and the two shake hands with goofy expressions on their faces.

These cosplay homages added a dose of campy fun to otherwise more buttoned-up events. Sure, there are some celebs who are known for their playful or thematic approaches to red carpet style. Zendaya famously wore a dress with a cobweb-like designand a superhero mask, to the premiere of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Jenna Ortega stayed pretty close character for her Wednesday red carpet events, including the premiere in which she went all out in black lace, a veil and goth eyeliner. And Lily James dressed as Cinderella, complete with the glass slippersfor the premiere of her in Los Angeles Cinderella movie too.

But all of these lean more glamorous on the red carpet than the whimsical, more literal (and very radical) outfits of Jack Black and Anya Taylor-Joy. I think red carpet events could be a little crazier, and maybe these video game adaptations will give us more opportunities. Here’s hoping Keegan-Michael Key shows up on his next red carpet wearing a toad hat.