The Super Mario Galaxy Movie composer Brian Tyler kept a secret from the team behind the new Nintendo movie: He worked on “a lot of the main themes” while in the hospital.
The mind behind much of the music for The Super Mario Bros. Movie and its space-set sequel spilled the beans during a conversation with Men’s Journal. While speaking about his process for creating new themes for beloved characters, Tyler touched on his unusual work environment.
“I was writing this music when I was actually in the hospital because I didn’t want to let anyone down,” he explains. “They didn’t know. I didn’t tell them. I wrote a lot of the main themes from there.”
While Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, and other familiar faces were back, Tyler’s work on the new film saw him compose music for newcomers like Rosalina, Bowser Jr., and Yoshi. He says, “I love them all” when discussing their updated, theatrical themes.
As many Nintendo fans have already noticed, the music of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is packed with Easter Eggs, with Tyler estimating the references to be “in the mid-300s.” Although packing nods to the video games wasn’t the main goal, he notes that “it’s always fun when fans start to find them.”
“For Bowser Jr., he’s mischievous, and he’s trying to impress his villainous dad,” Tyler said when describing his thought process for some of the new themes. “It’s kind of sweet that he’s trying to impress his dad by being the most nefarious he could possibly be. For Rosalina, there’s this beautiful family theme for someone who’s trying to find a sister that she didn’t know she had, that kind of feeling. It’s beautiful. For Yoshi, he has his own really interesting kind of jazzy, funky thing, and there’s some trap in there. It’s really a lot of different styles, but that is really the world of Super Mario Bros.”
He adds that, although music for returning characters was carried over to The Super Mario Galaxy movie, he truly started writing music for the sequel when working on its announcement trailer. The movie’s first proper teaser trailer premiered September 12, 2025, just one month after he suffered a double subarachnoid brain hemorrhage. Its full-length trailer then followed in November.
Tyler opened up about his recent health scare during an interview with Gold Derby in January. He says that, while finishing work on director James Vanderbilt’s Nuremberg in August 2025, he suffered two hemorrhages in 45 minutes. It was an event he says he “shouldn’t have survived,” touching on its low survival rate. Thankfully, at the time of the interview, he added, “I feel great now.”
Tyler spent what sounds to be a sizeable chunk of his recovery time composing music for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which premiered last week, April 1. It launched to record-breaking numbers, pulling in $34 million in its first day in the U.S. alone. That number ballooned to a staggered domestic total of $190,053,455 over the weekend, with its global total now reaching $372,487,455 (according to Box Office Mojo).
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
