Mario’s Voice Is Changing: Nintendo Reveals Actor Charles Martinet Will No Longer Voice the Character

The voice actor behind Mario video games for the last quarter century has just retired. On Monday, Nintendo announced that Martinet will no longer be recording new voice-over tracks for Super Mario Bros. video games. However, Martinet will continue to work with Nintendo and with fans.

“Charles Martinet has been the original voice of Mario in Nintendo games for a long time, as far back as Super Mario 64,” the announcement read. “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 company added. Fans flooded the comments with congratulations for Martinet and well-wishes, while many also shared how much his performances have meant to them. After spending hours at a time with Mario for years and years, many fans have become attached to his voice. They wondered how hard it would be to adjust to a new actor.

They won’t have to wait long to find out – reporters from Polygon reached out to ask if the upcoming Super Mario Bros. Wonder would include Martinet or not. Nintendo confirmed that Martinet does not voice Mario in the upcoming game, so fans will meet their new Mario on Oct. 20.

Martinet was born in California but traveled the world throughout his childhood. He attended the University of California, Berkeley where he was taking acting classes for fun in addition to his law degree. He heard about auditions for voice actors from a friend and went there on a whim, which is where he secured his job as Mario. He first voiced Mario in 1991.

As the games became more complex and the cast grew, Martinet provided more and more voices for the franchise. He is also the voice behind Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Metal Mario, Shadow Mario, Mini-Mario Toys, Baby Mario, Baby Luigi and Baby Wario, as well as many enemies. He worked on other franchises as well – both with Nintendo and with other companies.

Martinet re-posted Nintendo’s announcement on Monday and told fans: “You are all Numba One in my heart!” Fans are still singing his praises on social media right now.