Keegan-Michael Key Talks 'Super Mario Bros.', 'Key & Peele' and What's Next (Exclusive)

Comedy legend Keegan-Michael Key may be best known for Key & Peele, but the actor and comedian has plenty going on in terms of previous roles, current work and some hilarious new antics.

Recently, Key reprised his role as Toad in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, a character who he first played in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. About the role, Key said, "I'm a history buff, so the history of the medium of video games is so fascinating to me. And this is one of those flagship, linchpin starting places for not just a game like Pong, which I would have played when I was a kid, but that could infer a story."

Key went on, "Before there were video games with stories, there was Super Mario Brothers...it would spark your imagination to kind of go, 'What's the story behind this?' And then that grew and grew and grew narratively throughout the years, and I really admire that."

About the possibility of Key returning as Toad once more, the actor said, "I hope so. I hope that is something that could transpire, yes. Because I've had so much fun working on these projects; it's really been fantastic."

Reflecting on Key & Peele, which concluded a little over a decade ago in 2015, Key shared, "The thing that I find the most wild is we didn't understand what the world was going to offer us at the time that we were making Key & Peele...I knew what our show was; I knew that we had a modular show and that you could take the sketches out and watch them independently online if you felt so inclined. That made sense to me."

He continued, "But I had no idea it was going to turn into this. So, what I find fascinating and also very fulfilling is if a person comes up to me on the street, and I'm sure Jordan [Peele] experiences this as well, and they go, 'Hey, I really enjoy your work. I like your show, and I watch it with my kid.'"

"We're very blessed that we've been given this-I say second life-this third life. This is not what I ever expected. We were just having fun, me and Jordan and our writers, and creating stuff that we thought was funny. And it started to resonate with other people as well, and I'm happier for it," he added.

Key also recently partnered with Ore-Ida, the inventor of Tater Tots, in a multi-part collaboration that included two hilarious stunts. The first was an appearance at a New York Yankeesgame on April 13, alongside five Keegan-Michael Key lookalikes. In addition to their identical outfits and matching facial hair, the real Key and all five fake Keys were perfectly in sync, even jumping up and cheering at the same times.

"The main concept of this is that there are originals in this world and then there are imitators," Key explained. "What we did at the Yankees game was, there's me, Keegan-Michael Key, I'm the original. And then we had five guys who were dressed exactly like me. We all sat behind home plate during the Yankees game, and we all cheered the same way and celebrated the same way and went, 'Oh my god, why did he swing at that' the same way."

"It was a lot of fun. We really had a wonderful time, and the guys were great. We had wonderful conversations, exchanged some numbers, it was really, really lovely," he said.

In addition to this Yankees takeover, Key and Ore-Ida partnered on "Don't Trust the Imi-taters," a video that harkens back to Key's storied history of bringing multiple characters to life at once. In it, Key plays a range of characters (or "imi-taters"), from Keegan Seven Seas to Keegan-Cycle Key.

However, Key revealed that this wasn't his idea. Rather, this was the brainchild of Key's partner, Elle Key.

"It was Elle's idea to say, 'Wait a minute. If you have one Keegan, and he's the original, what if we just use him over and over again and have other imitators? Let's do this imi-tater thing and make other imitators,'" he explained. "And then everybody jumped on her bandwagon and collaboratively, we came up with this wonderful spot."

"It's been a really joyous, collaborative experience with [Ore-Ida]," Key added.

The video also offered a bit of a Key & Peele reunion, Key shared, as Peter Atencio, who directed most of the Key & Peele sketches, was also the director of this piece. The hair and makeup team of Key & Peele came back together to work on the "Don't Trust the Imi-taters" video as well.

"It was really great. It was exactly a reunion," Key said. "And when you work with people for over five years, they become a family. So, it was a family reunion as well."

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This story was originally published April 24, 2026 at 10:24 AM.