Charles Martinet steps down as the voice of Mario
Nintendo has just made a pretty major announcement over on Twitter: Charles Martinet, who has been the voice of Mario (and many other characters from the Mario universe) for nearly 3 decades, is stepping down from voice acting in Mario games.
Moving forward, he will no longer be voicing Mario (or any other characters) in future Nintendo games. Super Mario Wonder or Super Mario RPG, releasing this October and November respectively, might very well be his final (major) roles as the Mario brothers (though this is yet to be confirmed!).
Update: Nintendo has confirmed to IGN that Charles Martinet will NOT be voicing Mario in Super Mario Bros. Wonder after all.
But it’s not the end of the Nintendo adventure for Charles Martinet: he’s officially become a Mario ambassador, and will travel around the world to meet fans and share the joy of Mario. This isn’t something new for him, though: Charles Martinet has often appeared at conventions and the likes to meet fans during the past two decades.
Right now, it’s not clear who will replace Charles Martinet as the voice of Mario and all the other characters he’s been voicing in Nintendo games over the years (Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, and others).
In the Super Mario Bros. Movie, Charles Martinet was “replaced” by Chris Pratt: a casting choice that made quite the stir among the Nintendo/Mario community. And while it’s unlikely the famous actor will become the new official voice of Mario, it looks like we will have to wait until the game is released for us to find out who is replacing Charles Martinet.
Here’s a video message from Charles Martinet and Shigeru Miyamoto about the change of Mario’s voice actor:
And here’s the original message Nintendo shared on Twitter:
While Nintendo mentions Super Mario 64 as the first time players got to hear Charles Martinet as Mario, his first official role was actually Mario Teaches Typing, released two years prior on PC (though Super Mario 64 is indeed where most players heard his iconic voice for the first time). It’s truly the end of an era for Mario games and its many fans around the world.
Source: Nintendo (Twitter)
