- Primary Subject: Glen Powell's casting as Fox McCloud
- Key Update: Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri revealed how Glenn Powell landed the role in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
- Status: Confirmed
- Last Verified: April 2, 2026
- Quick Answer: Glen Powell landed the role by personally contacting producers to express his deep love for Fox McCloud, unaware that Nintendo was already planning the character's debut.
Glen Powell's voice role as Fox McCloud became one of the highlights for fans who have watched The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and there is now clamor for him to star in a spinoff.
A week before the film was released, it was announced that The Running Man star had been cast to voice the beloved Star Fox character, prompting a lot of excitement from fans. Some believe that he is the right actor for the role, especially now that they have watched the film and seen his take on the character. So how was he able to land the coveted role?
How Glen Powell Landed the Voice Role of Fox McCloud
In an interview with Forbes, Illumination boss Chris Meledandri revealed the story of how Glen Powell was cast to voice Star Fox in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
As it turns out, the actor lobbied for the part as he contacted Illumination and Nintendo to express interest in joining the franchise and his love for the character of Fox McCloud.
"When we were working on the first movie, we began to get phone calls from actors. They started communicating their enthusiasm. After the first movie was done, there were two phone calls that came from actors expressing incredible conviction and passion about being involved with Nintendo, and one of them was from Glen Powell," Meledandri recalled.
"He explained that we had to understand how deeply he loved the character of Fox McCloud. His dream was one day to be part of a Star Fox movie. I’m listening to this going, ‘He has no idea that Miyamoto-san and I are talking about Star Fox being in this new movie,’ and Glen is expressing this passion for this."
Star Fox creator and Nintendo game director Shigeru Miyamoto revealed that it was Illumination that first proposed the idea of including Fox McCloud in the sequel.
"When I got the proposal from Chris about including Star Fox, in general, from Nintendo’s perspective, we tend to avoid mixing IPs. With that said, though, as the creator of Star Fox and this movie taking place in space, I felt that I wanted to see that," he said.
"I wanted to see what it would be like, but I also felt that there may be significant resistance internally about that idea, so after I got this proposal, I contacted the necessary parties involved and started my lobbying activity here at Nintendo. I was surprised to find that a lot of people saw a lot of potential with it and were really excited to see what would come out of this."
What is The Super Mario Galaxy Movie About?
In The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Mario and Luigi team up with their new ally, Yoshi, joining Princess Peach and Toad on a cosmic odyssey across the stars. Their galactic journey leads them to Rosalina, setting the stage for a stellar showdown against the combined might of Bowser and Bowser Jr.
Aside from Powell, the voice cast includes Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Benny Safdie, Donald Glover, Issa Rae, Luis Guzmán, Kevin Michael Richardson, and Brie Larson.
The film is currently showing in theaters. It is also available in premium formats such as IMAX and RealD 3D.
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