Super Mario Bros. Movie sequel on hold due to the ongoing writer's strike, says Chris Pratt

The ongoing writers' strike has apparently put the sequel to the Super Mario Bros. Movie on hold, according to the voice of Mario himself Chris Pratt.

You absolutely won't be surprised to hear that a sequel to the Super Mario Bros. Movie from Universal, Nintendo, and Illumination is on the way, even if it technically hasn't been officially announced as of yet. The reason it's not official official is because Pratt recently spoke of the sequel in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, but with the caveat that development on the script is actually on pause due to the writers' strike that currently has Hollywood at a very justified standstill (thanks, Eurogamer). "We're in the midst of this writers' strike, and so everything has been paused and on hold for the right reasons," Pratt said in the interview.

"I really do support the WGA and our writers," he added. "When the negotiations have been completed, and the writers feel comfortable moving forward, then it'll be time to start talking about what's next for that." This obviously doesn't tell us anything about the film itself, but again, not much of a surprise considering a script will barely even exist at that point.

A sequel was always going to happen, because as it stands, the film has taken in $1.3 billion worldwide, making it the third highest grossing animated film of all time. It's just over $100 million short of Frozen 2, and first place belongs to The Lion King remake, which Disney wouldn't say is an animated film, but we all know it is.

"We're so grateful for the support," Pratt said of the film's success. "[It's] really shocking to me how successful that movie's been. I mean, I expected people would love it the way I was excited about it, but it's truly multi-generational around the world. People love it. They love Mario... It's a really fun, funny, cute, heartwarming movie and, god, I can't believe I'm part of it."

This follows on from the recent report that a Zelda film might also be in the works, once again potentially a collaboration between Universal, Illumination, and Nintendo.