Nintendo Officially Rewrites Princess Peach After 41 Years

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie!Princess Peach’s place in Nintendo lore has permanently changed thanks to The Super Mario Galaxy Movie rewriting the iconic video game character. Illumination’s animated movie franchise has gone to great lengths to help Peach shed the damsel-in-distress prototype that long defined her. That was evident in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and she gets an even bigger role in the sequel.

Peach willingly journeys into the cosmos to help the Lumas find Rosalina after she’s kidnapped by Bowser Jr. She repeatedly proves how big of a hero she is in the galaxy throughout her adventure, whether she’s with Mario or separated from him. But The Super Mario Galaxy Movie also officially sees Nintendo alter Peach, confirming where she came from and how powerful she truly is.

Nintendo Makes Princess Peach & Rosalina Sisters In The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

The big reveal for Nintendo in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is that Peach is Rosalina’s younger sister. It’s explained that Rosalina and Peach grew up together on another planet, but that evil forces coming after them led Rosalina to send Peach away for safety. This is how she ends up in the Mushroom Kingdom as a child, as seen in The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

The video games never really explore Peach’s backstory, making this a completely new revelation for the character, who was originally introduced in 1985. The lack of details about where the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom came from has left fans speculating for years about who she could be related to. And once Rosalina was introduced in 2007, the thought of them being sisters became a popular theory.

However, Nintendo never gave much credence to this belief. They are both princesses and have blonde hair, but there hasn’t been a ton of evidence in the games themselves that Peach and Rosalina are related, whether as cousins or siblings.

In fact, Rosalina’s family history has been explored somewhat. Rosalina’s storybook for Super Mario Galaxy includes mentions of her father, mother, and brother. But there is no evidence that she has a long-lost sister, much less that this sister would be Peach. Now, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has confirmed that Peach and Rosalina are sisters for Nintendo’s cinematic universe.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’s Princess Peach Twist Gives Her Powers Too

By making her Rosalina’s younger sister, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie also increases Peach’s powers. In the games, she’s best known for possessing Heart Powers, which is a type of magic that has allowed her to levitate, heal others, and more. Thanks to Nintendo’s animated sequel, Peach can now count cosmic powers among her abilities.

The movie explains that she, like Rosalina, is made of stardust. Peach can summon the power of the cosmos as a result of her unique backstory. She is not as well-trained in these abilities as Rosalina, with the only glimpse of her using these fresh powers coming in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie‘s ending when the sisters put their hands together, creating a burst of cosmic energy.

This is not where Peach’s cosmic powers end. She holds the ability to reshape the very fabric of the universe, which is how she and Rosalina transform Planet Bowser into a world lush with plants and life.

While Peach has not harnessed the full strength of her powers in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, she should be as powerful as Rosalina now and possess all the cosmic-based abilities of her sister.

How The Super Mario Bros. Movie Set Up Peach’s New History

To some degree, Peach’s family and powers twist has been part of the long game for Nintendo through these animated features. The Super Mario Bros. Movie laid the foundation for such a twist to come.

The original movie directly addressed the strangeness that a human is ruling over the Mushroom Kingdom by explaining that Peach came to the land as a child. She was then raised by the Toads until they made her their ruler. And while they all became a family for the princess, she still spends part of the original film wondering about her origin.

That’s why where Princess Peach came from felt like such a big tease for the sequel. This included a notable moment where she’s shown staring into space, similarly to how she does early on in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. A simple touch like this became a reason why speculation that Peach would be revealed to be Rosalina’s sister ramped up so much once it was confirmed the latter was in the sequel film.

It’s now clear that the creative team had plans to make her and Rosalina related from the beginning. They just made audiences wait for the sequel to confirm the move, prompting entirely new questions and speculation about what will come next.

What Princess Peach & Rosalina Being Sisters Means For Nintendo’s Future

Now that Peach and Rosalina are confirmed to be sisters, Nintendo has several opportunities to explore this new dynamic further.

This will certainly be a relationship that continues to develop in future Super Mario movies. The unconfirmed third film that will absolutely happen can show the sisters united, give Rosalina a chance to train Peach, and uncover even more details about their shared origin, such as the evil forces that were coming after them all those years ago. They can also befriend Daisy after her The Super Mario Galaxy Movie post-credits debut.

This may ultimately be used to support a Peach and Rosalina spinoff movie, even. It’s abundantly clear that Illumination is looking to explore the Mushroom Kingdom’s princess a lot through these films. Rather than keep them both as secondary or supporting characters in a third Super Mario, she and Rosalina could be used as the stars of an entirely separate film.

Peach’s twist may not only influence the movie franchise, though. Nintendo may look to bring the relationship with Rosalina into the video games. After all, Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto is a producer on these movies, and nothing happens in them without his permission. If the fan reaction to this confirmed relationship is strong enough, the games could follow suit.

The movies and games already have a high degree of synergy. Donkey Kong got his first solo game in years after he was in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and Star Fox may get the same treatment after this sequel. Nintendo very well could make Rosalina and Peach’s sisterhood confirmed in the games to keep things consistent with fans across all types of media.

Ultimately, Princess Peach is an entirely different character after The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. She has a sister in Rosalina and fresh cosmic powers. There’s every reason to believe her future is incredibly bright when it comes to future Nintendo movies and games.