10 Actors Who Already Hate Upcoming Movies
7. John Leguizamo - Mario
It's incredibly surprising that it's taken Nintendo almost 30 years to greenlight another Mario movie, 1993's shambolic live-action adaptation apparently proving enough of an embarrassment for the company that they wanted to make sure they got it right next time.
And though going the animated route for the new film definitely makes sense - produced by Despicable Me's Ilumination no less - many heads were turned when its primary voice cast was announced.
By far the most contentious pick was that of Mario himself, who will be voiced by the rather left-field choice of Chris Pratt. Talent isn't so much an issue here as suitability: why cast the totally unremarkable-sounding Pratt to play a character as literally animated and vocally distinctive as Mario?
One actor to chime in on the decision was the great John Leguizamo, who of course played Luigi in the 1993 adaptation.
Though he admittedly has no inherent qualms with a Mario reboot, he expressed major concerns over the film's mostly-white central casting, what with Charlie Day additionally cast to play Luigi. Leguizamo tweeted:
"Too bad they went all white! No Latinx in the leads! Ground-breaking colour-blind casting in original! Plus, I'm the only one who knows how to make this movie work script-wise!"
Say what you will about the 1993 Mario, but it was at least forward-thinking in casting a non-Caucasian actor to play Luigi.