Pikmin Spotted in Super Mario Galaxy Movie Teaser Alongside Mario

The official Super Mario Galaxy Movie X account posted a teaser this week with a caption reading "They're ready for their close up," and buried in the first five seconds of footage were several Pikmin, the plant-like creatures from Nintendo's long-running but comparatively niche franchise. Their presence marks the second confirmed instance of a non-Mario character in the film, following R.O.B., the Super Smash Bros. fighter who was earlier spotted on Super Mario Galaxy Movie merchandise.

The Pikmin appear in vibrant colors with stalks sprouting from their heads, matching their in-game look closely. The franchise debuted in 2001 and most recently released Pikmin 4 in 2023. Shigeru Miyamoto created both the Mario and Pikmin series and currently serves as a producer on Illumination's Super Mario films, which has led observers to connect his influence to the cameo. "I spent a lot of time the past 5, 6 years really wanting to grow Pikmin," Miyamoto has said previously.

The Pikmin cameo arrived alongside a separate, stranger piece of Nintendo marketing. Nintendo released a dialogue-free animated short titled "Close to You," running just under four minutes, in which a blonde toddler's pacifier is picked up and carried away by an invisible force while Pikmin series music plays on the soundtrack. Nintendo subsequently released a second version of the short with an army of Pikmin now visible. Viewers who went back through the original footage reported spotting a red Pikmin running under the baby's crib at the 1:39 timestamp.

The short sparked considerable fan speculation: some viewers argued the baby's blue clothes and short blonde hair suggested the character could be Rosalina, a central figure expected in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, though IGN noted the animation style differs from Illumination's own work. Nintendo has not offered any official explanation for the short or confirmed its connection to the film, which is scheduled to open in theaters April 1.

Beyond Pikmin, the movie's confirmed roster already includes Yoshi, Bowser Jr., and Rosalina. Pikmin have appeared as Easter eggs in Nintendo's broader media landscape before, including a statue in the original Super Mario Bros. Movie and scattered appearances throughout Nintendo theme park spaces, but their presence in a movie teaser at this scale is new territory for the franchise.