Nintendo Announces Departure of Mario Voice Actor

Image credit: IGN

Beloved voice actor moves on to the next kingdom in his career

Nintendo fans awoke on the morning of August 21st to some surprising news. In the early morning, the Twitter/X account for Nintendo announced that Charles Martinet, the official gaming voice actor for Mario, would be stepping away from any future voice recording activity. The company further elaborated that Martinet would be moving into a new position as Mario Ambassador, presumably being the spokesperson for all things Mario rather than the spoken voice of the character. Nintendo promised that a video featuring Martinet and company-representative director Shigeru Miyamoto would be released soon directly addressing this announcement.

Martinet’s history with Mario dates back to the mid-90’s. During an interview with Guinness World Records, Martinet describes how he auditioned for the role almost haphazardly, feeling a drive to explore voice acting in any way he could. After creating the voice of the popular Nintendo character on the spot, and winning over the affection of the casting team, Martinet would officially voice Mario in the 1994 typing teacher Mario Teaches Typing. In 1996, Charles would see more global recognition in Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo 64 console. From then on, Martinet would voice the franchise hero across many Nintendo platforms and games, most recently in the 2021 co-op game Mario Party Superstars.

As for the future, it is currently unclear what exactly Charles’ duties will be as a Mario Ambassador. In June, Nintendo announced its newest project for the franchise, Super Mario Bros. Wonder. The arrival of this news, plus a confirmation obtained by IGN, details that Martinet is not involved with the project. So, Nintendo fans will have to be patient to learn who will be taking on the mantle of gaming’s most famous plumber.