Charles Martinet has been the voice of Super Mario basically forever, but Nintendo just announced that he won't perform in the role going forward.
The announcement made on X (formerly Twitter) pays homage to Martinet's work, but mentions that he will move into a new role as official Mario Ambassador and won't play the ultra-famous characters in future games.
On the other hand, Martinet will travel the world to "share the joy of Mario." A special message starring him alongside Shigeru Miyamoto is also coming at some point down the line. Here's the full announcement.
Charles Martinet has been the original voice of Mario in Nintendo games for a long time, as far back as Super Mario 64.
Charles is now moving into the brand-new role of Mario Ambassador. With this transition, he will be stepping back from recording character voices for our games, but he'll continue to travel the world sharing the joy of Mario and interacting with you all!
It has been an honor working with Charles to help bring Mario to life for so many years and we want to thank and celebrate him.
Please keep an eye out for a special video message from Shigeru Miyamoto and Charles himself, which we will post at a future date.
The actor responded on his own X account as follows:
My new Adventure begins! You are all Numba One in my heart! #woohoo !!!!!!!
Update 9/7/2023: The message mentioned above featuring Charles Martinet and Miyamoto-san has been published, and you can watch it below.
Here’s a special video message from Shigeru Miyamoto and Charles Martinet regarding the change of Mario’s voice actor, announced on 8/21. pic.twitter.com/4mOpD2Cx3a
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) September 7, 2023
As mentioned by the announcement, Martinet debuted in the role of the popular plumber with Super Mario 64 in 1996 and has been the official voice of Mario for over two and a half decades.
We saw the first hint to a probable change with the recent Super Mario Bros. Movie (which has been wildly successful), for which the role was taken over by Hollywood actor Chris Pratt.
