Nintendo has announced that long running voice actor for Mario, Charles Martinet, will be stepping down from the role and will transition to the new role of “Mario Ambassador”.
As explained via a statement on Twitter (shown below), Martinet will no longer be voicing the iconic Italian plumber and will instead be supporting the character as an “ambassador”.
Furthermore, the voices of Mario and Luigi have apparently already been recast for the upcoming thoroughly surreal looking Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Who the new voice actors or actor will be has yet to be announced.
Martinet has been voicing Mario for a long time. He started out doing trade shows back in 1991 where he would voice Mario as a 3D talking head that would interact with people.
The first major game he voiced Mario was for Super Mario 64 back in 1996, although he voiced Mario in both Mario Teaches Typing and Mario’s Game Gallery before that. In the time since, he has gone on to be a huge fan favorite with fans of the games.
Voicing Mario for over three decades is an impressive run, but Martinet is now 67 and he deserves a break. While I am sad to see him stop voicing Mario, I hope his new “ambassador” status will allow to have some fun at least.
In addition to this news, there will also be a follow up message from both Shigeru Miyamoto and Martinet at a future date.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder will be released for the Switch on October 20.
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