Charles Martinet, the man who voiced Mario, Luigi and Wario in Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. games, is stepping down from the role after 27 years.
Upon stepping down, Martinet will transition to become a ‘Mario Ambassador’, a brand new role that will allow him to travel the world and share the joy of Mario. Nintendo announced Martinet’s departure on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Monday.
“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,” wrote Nintendo.
“It has been an honour working with Charles to help bring Mario to life for so many years and we want to thank and celebrate him.”
Nintendo also added that special video message from Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto and Martinet himself will be posted at a future date.
Martinet later confirmed the news himself when he wrote, “My new Adventure begins! You are all Numba One in my heart!”
Martinet has been the voice of Mario since 1991. He first started performing as Mario at trade shows and went on to record the character’s voice in Super Mario 64 in 1996. Since then, he has been the voice of Mario in plenty of other games. He also voiced Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Baby Luigi and Baby Mario.
In addition, the voice actor also appeared in The Super Mario Bros. Movie as Giuseppe and Mario’s dad. Chris Pratt and Charlie Day voiced Mario and Luigi respectively in movie.
Don’t judge a book by its cover, for behind all this makeup, is a geek just like you. To simply put it, superheroes, Star Wars, Harry Potter and all things gore and creepy makes this girly girl swoon.
Trinity Sun
