Talk about a possible Mario movie has been going for a while, but now it has been confirmed. The stocky Italian plumber will star in a flick to be developed by Illumination Entertainment, the same animation studio responsible for the Despicable Me franchise, The Secret Life of Pets, Minions and Sing.

As expected, the movie will be an animation and not a live-action feature like the disappointing 1993 movie, Super Mario Bros., starring Bob Hoskins as Mario.

No information about a possible story line has been released, nor Mario’s co-stars, although one can imagine that Luigi, Princess Peach, Bowser and Yoshi will all feature (if we’re lucky, even Donkey Kong could make an appearance).

One of Nintendo’s stated goals is to leverage the company’s strong intellectual property in mediums outside of traditional video games, and a successful Mario movie would certainly do that.

The relationship with Illumination Entertainment has emerged out of the blue, since the studio’s parent company is Universal Pictures, who has a relationship with Nintendo through the planned Super Nintendo World theme park in Japan and others scheduled for Florida and California.

With news today breaking of Mario Kart coming to smartphones, and the strong sales of the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo seems on track for a highly successful 2018.