Pedro Pascal Becomes Mario in New Saturday Night Live Sketch

Ever since he showed up as Oberyn Martell Game of Thrones, It was quite fun to watch Pedro Pascal’s rise to stardom because he’s just good at anything he can do, even if the thing itself is a hot mess. And as a star of both The Mandalorian and HBO’s new prestige hit The last of us, It’s clear that people want to see Pedro Pascal as a rugged gunslinger mentor, which is doing Saturday Night Live latest skit somehow perfect.

Pascal hosted last night’s episode and one of the skits had him play Mario on a prestige version of Nintendo Mario Kart Series. Instead of escorting Ellie across the country, he must take Princess Peach (Chloe Fineman) across the Rainbow Road while Bowser (Kenan Thompson) chases her. Yes, it’s literally a Nintendo reskin last of us right down to explaining the Goombas as a sentient mushroom, but it’s also pretty funny and just goofy enough to work.

see that Mario Cast reimagined as “complex, dramatic HBO characters” is pretty funny — “complex” for Toad and Yoshi (Bowen Yang) simply means “I’m bisexual” — and it helps that Pascal as Mario is… actually pretty good? He doesn’t have a goofy accent, but he basically plays it like he’s playing Joel and is dead serious. (His “It’s-a me, Mario” is probably the best dramatic version we’ll ever get of this line.) Maybe Nintendo could be working on a live-action movie in addition to this animated film, which is coming out in a couple of months Mario Movie where he is Mario and Charlie Day Luigi? Maybe we could also get him to take on a dual role as Wario.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Wonder, war of starsAnd star trek What’s next for the releases DC Universe in Film and TVand everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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