‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Post Credit Scenes, Explained

You just can’t have a movie franchise based on existing IP these days without throwing in multiple post-credit scenes! What other choice do studios have? End the movie with the final scene, creating a natural sense of closure in the narrative? Now that would just be bad filmmaking.

Anyway, you’re here because you want to know what happens in the two Super Mario Bros. Movie post-credit scenes, and what they might mean. Great! We’re here to provide.

First off, yes, there are two tags in The Super Mario Bros. Movie: a mid-credit scene and a post-credit scene. Make sure you stay until the very end if you want to see both. Don’t worry, everyone in my theater just looked at their phones while we all sat through the credits, so you can entertain yourself while you wait.

The mid-credit scene: Bowser is locked up

In the mid-credit scene, we see Bowser back at his piano, singing another tortured ballad. But he’s still tiny from the mini mushroom that Peach crammed into his mouth so that she could grab him and put him in a jar, so she and the toads are keeping him imprisoned in a bird cage. A toad guard comes in and tells him to keep it down. Bowser is mad! He doesn’t like it! That’s it, that’s the scene.

The post-credit scene: Make way for the sequel!

Remember the weird, subterranean nexus of pipes that Mario and Luigi find in the sewers when they go to try to fix the water main break? Turns out we haven’t seen the last of that place.

After the credits, we return to the bowels of Brooklyn, where we see that something has come through the pipes from the Mushroom Kingdom. It’s a polka dotted egg, and as the screen cuts to black, we hear a familiar voice say, “Yoshi!” Uh oh! Looks like Yoshi the beloved cutesy dinosaur is going to run amok in New York!

Of course, that shot isn’t the first time we see Yoshi in the movie. Earlier in the film, as Mario is traveling across the Mushroom Kingdom, we see a whole herd of Yoshis by a riverbank. The movie heavily implies, though, that this last Yoshi will be the prime Yoshi who becomes Mario’s companion throughout his adventures. (In the games, you could go through a dozen Yoshis without blinking, but nothing makes sense in this world so let’s not worry about it too much.) The scene also feels like a subtle nod to the original Mario Bros. movie, which featured dinosaurs—including Yoshi—in a New York-like setting, but maybe I’m reading too much into it.

In any case, the post-credit scene is a clear indicator that Illumination and Nintendo plan to make a sequel. Whether that project gets green lit remains to be seen, but their intentions couldn’t be clearer.

(featured image: Universal Pictures)