Pedro Pascal Kills It in “Saturday Night Live” Trailer for a Gritty Mario Kart Series
Pedro Pascal already knows what it’s like to star in the greatest video game adaptation of all time. That’s currently what he’s doing in HBO’s The Last Of Us, which is a brilliant adaptation of Naughty Dog’s hugely popular and critically acclaimed game of the same now. Luckily, the folks at Saturday Night Live saw the perfect opportunity to pitch Pascal taking on another iconic role derived from a video game. Behold him as that indefatigable Italian plumber in SNL‘s gritty take on Nintendo’s beloved Mario Kart game.
“It’s been ten years since our kingdom fell,” we learn from the opening of this hardscrabble re-imagining of Nintendo’s mega-popular go-kart racing game in which Mario, his plumber-in-crime Luigi, and a slew of other characters from the Mario Bros. universe (Peach, Daisy, Yoshi, Toad, Wario, Bowser and more) race. In SNL‘s gnarly version, the fallen Kingdom is ruled by Bowser (Kenan Thompson), and it’s up to Pascal’s Mario to shepherd Princess Peach (Chloe Fineman) to the Rainbow Road while avoiding getting killed by everything from sentient fungi known as goombas to Bowser himself. Characters from the various “Mario Kart” iterations are on hand, including Luigi (Mikey Day), Yoshi (Bowen Yang), and Toad (Marcello Hernández), the latter two proclaiming they’re bi-sexuality because to add to the complexity of their characters. It’s silly. It’s hysterical.
SNL has just about perfected these trailers, and Mario Kart now joins previous gritty adaptations of children’s games and series like the Joker-inspired trailer for Grouch, a gritty psychological drama starring David Harbour as titular garbage-can-dwelling Sesame Street character Oscar the Grouch.
Check out the trailer for gritty Mario Kart below:
For more on The Last Of Us, check out these stories:
“The Last of Us” Cinematographer Eben Bolter on Episode 4 & More
How “The Last Of Us” Episode 3 Departed From The Game in a Beautiful, Heartbreaking Way
HBO’s “The Last Of Us” Delivers Astonishing Second Ep For Largest-Ever Viewership Growth
HBO’s “The Last Of Us” Has Massive Debut
Featured image: SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE — “Pedro Pascal, Coldplay” Episode 1838 — Pictured: (l-r) Chloe Fineman as a princess and host Pedro Pascal as Mario during the “New Video Game Series” sketch on Saturday, February 4, 2023 — (Photo by: Kyle Dubiel/NBC)
