Nintendo just let slip a huge piece of Mario lore! During this week’s Nintendo Direct, CEO Doug Bowser confirmed for the first time that the world’s favorite Italian plumber always comes back to life after he dies due to both Heaven and Hell rejecting his soul.


Talk about a fascinating bit of Mario mythology!

“As soon as Mario is killed onscreen, he immediately appears before St. Peter, who refuses him entry into Heaven and condemns him to Hell due to the number of Koopas he’s killed,” Bowser told reporters, confirming that Satan himself then casts Mario out of the inferno due to his virtuous commitment to rescuing Princess Peach. “At this point, Mario is forced to stalk the Earth, neither good nor evil, neither living nor dead.”


“Our vision from the very beginning was to make Mario a perpetual outcast, cursed to endlessly wander through purgatory,” he added.

Bowser went on to describe how the gameworld of the Super Mario series represents a constant state of limbo for Mario, who searches in vain for death to finally free him from his haunted existence. He went on to explain that although Mario’s return from the afterlife takes only a few seconds of game time for players, the iconic plumber experiences it as an eternity of torment. So cool!


Plus, it sounds like the company might be revealing even more about the game’s canon in coming months, with Bowser dropping hints that whenever the player pauses the game, Mario issues a silent scream of agony as his consciousness is trapped in a state of suspended animation.

Wow, Nintendo fans may never look at this classic character the same way again!