Bye bye, Charles Martinet! Iconic ‘Mario’ voice actor steps down from role for new Nintendo venture
Charles Martinet has “mamma”-ed his last “mia” as the voice of mustachioed video game icon Mario.
The voice actor, 67, who has famously lent his voice to the Nintendo character for more than 20 years, is moving on from the role, Nintendo announced Monday. His new gig? “Mario ambassador,” the gaming company said on Twitter (now X).
“With his 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,” the tweet said.
Martinet was the original voice of Mario starting with 1996’s game “Super Mario 64,” according to Nintendo. Since then, Martinet has brought his talent to scores of “Mario” games — including “Super Smash Bros.,” “Super Mario Sunshine” and “Super Mario Party” — that entertained generations of gamers.
Martinet’s Nintendo voice history also includes voicing Mario’s younger brother Luigi and their twisted counterparts Wario and Waluigi. While Chris Pratt voiced the titular goomba-jumping plumber in Illumination’s “Super Mario Bros.” movie, Martinet voiced Mario and Luigi’s dad.
“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 them,” Nintendo’s statement continued. “Please keep an eye out for a special video message from [creator] Shigeru Miyamoto and Charles himself, which we will post at a future date.”
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Martinet shared the news to his Twitter (now X) profile, writing “my new Adventure begins!”
“You are all Numba One in my heart,” he wrote. “#woohoo !!!!!!!”
As news of Martinet’s “Mario” departure spread Monday morning, the gaming community celebrated the voice actor and looked ahead to the next chapter of his career.
As the actors’ strike continues, voice actors hope for their own contract requiring consent and compensation for AI to reproduce their voice or likeness.
“A big Wahoo! to Charles, wherever the journey takes him,” Xbox tweeted.
“THANK YOU CHARLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!,” tweeted the Among Us account.
Nintendo’s announcement comes months before it is scheduled to release new games set in the “Mario” universe. “Super Mario Bros. Wonder” will release in October, while “WarioWare: MoveIt!” releases in November, when “Super Mario RPG” will also relaunch.
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