Why This Super Mario Bros Post-Credits Scene Was Cut From 'Pixels'

Chris Columbus' Pixels starring Adam Sandler hits theaters this weekend, but one of the things you won't see on this movie is a post credits scene. But a post credits "button" was originally written into the script featuring Mario from Nintendo's Super Mario Bros franchise. Why did Mario end up on the cutting room floor? Find out about the Mario Pixels movie scene that didn't happen.

First of all, there are no spoilers for Pixels coming up... but if you want to avoid learning if or how Mario might appear in the film until after you see the film, bookmark this story and come back.

One of the many things I was disappointed in the film Pixels was how the ending climactic sequence featured so many of the same video game properties and characters and not much variety. We get a glimpse or two of some more interesting video game properties, but its just that and nothing more. It would have been cool if the ending battle was made more epic with the addition of a lot more recognizable arcade and 8bit era video game characters.

And while you might get a fun little look at Mario in the movie, somewhere, he was originally going to appear in the Pixels post credits scene. Here is a look at the scene from the script:

PAN UP AND SPIN AROUND, so we face the Washington Monument, damaged but still standing. When we reach the top, we see a small figure on top, hands on hips, watching all this from high above.Mario.We zoom in on his face, and he smiles. CUT TO BLACK

But this tease for Pixels 2 is not included at the end of the film (not that it looks like we'll get a Pixels sequel considering Paper Towns beat it on Thursday night at the box office). ScreenCrush was able to interview Pixels director Chris Columbus and find out why Mario was left on the cutting room floor:

"We tried it. There was a moment we even did a previs of it, we thought it was interesting but we wanted to kind of use him somewhere else. I don't want to spoil the fact that he maybe somewhere else in the film but ... that ironically is a bigger moment for the audience than the ending with Mario.

Columbus also revealed that they were unable to get Michael Jackson or Mr. T, but they were able to get the rights for all the major characters in the script. You can watch the rest of that interview on Screencrush.

I'm glad they were able to get Donkey Kong for such a key boss role in the film, that was the highlight of Pixels for me. I own a Donkey Kong arcade cabinet and am a huge fan of The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, which largely inspires aspects of this film: from Peter Dinklage's character Eddie who seems a little bit inspired by Donkey Kong master Billy Mitchell and his cohort Steve Sanders, to the film's executive producer Seth Gordon, who directed the documentary.