Donald Glover ‘Campaigned’ to Voice Yoshi in Super Mario Galaxy Movie

Donald Glover, who stars in “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” as Yoshi, “campaigned for the role,” according to his co-star Jack Black.

Black, who reprises his voice role as Bowser in Universal Pictures’ animated sequel, told ExtraTV, “It’s kind of a cool thing. We got lucky that we got Brie [Larson], who crushes it and loves the Nintendo universe. And also Donald, who campaigned for the role. He told his agent, ‘Call [Illumination CEO] Chris Meledandri. Tell him I really want to be Yoshi, I’d love to be in the new “Super Mario Bros.”‘ Because he loves it, and he loves that universe.”

Glover said he felt “a little timid” when first taking on the role, telling ExtraTV, “I was like, ‘OK, how am I gonna do this? These guys did such a great job on the first one.’” He added, “And that’s a hard thing to do. It’s a very iconic movie and character. I always believe in the idea of under-promising, over-delivering, and was like, ‘I’ll just study really hard, and hopefully I’ll be beloved like them.’”

In addition to Glover and Black, the film’s star-studded cast includes Chris Pratt as Mario, Charlie Day as Luigi, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Brie Larson as Princess Rosalina, Issa Rae as Honey Queen, Glen Powell as Fox McCloud, Benny Safdie as Bowser Jr., Keegan-Michael Key as Toad and Luis Guzmán as Wart.

“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” is directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, and will be released in theaters on April 1 from Universal, Illumination and Nintendo.