Viewers are now venturing to the cosmos to experience the wonders of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie in theaters, but the Italian plumber (Chris Pratt) and his brother (Charlie Day) aren’t the ones getting all the buzz. Illumination and Nintendo’s latest adventure came packed with appearances from previously missing Mario mainstays like Birdo, long-lost villains like Wart (Luis Guzmán), and even a few relics of the video game giant’s past like R.O.B. The two new characters garnering the most attention, however, have undoubtedly been Donald Glover‘s turn as the lovable green dinosaur Yoshi and the surprise inclusion of Star Fox‘s Fox McCloud, voiced by Twisters star Glen Powell.

“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. 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.”

Miyamoto Initially Resisted Placing Fox in ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’

Glover‘s story is very similar, though a bit less coincidental. Meledandri said the multi-hyphenate Community star, too, gave Illumination a ring after The Super Mario Bros. Movie, saying, “‘I need to be involved, if there’s any way with a Nintendo movie.’” With his lengthy resume, including two Emmy wins as both an actor and director on Atlanta, they were eager to have him aboard, though his choice of wanting to play Yoshi especially intrigued them. “We loved him as an actor and a creator, as well as a filmmaker, and so he came in, and we sat down, and he said, ‘I will do the most incredible Yoshi.’ So it was really interesting that these two casting ideas came from the actors themselves.”

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is now in theaters.

via Collider