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Nintendo Announces Charles Martinet Stepping Down as Voice of Mario, Transitioning to Ambassador Role
Image Credit: Nintendo
Nintendo of America announced this week that Charles Martinet, the longtime voice of Mario for the company’s Super Mario Bros. game series, will be stepping down from his role of Mario and other characters for Nintendo. Per Nintendo’s statement, Martinet will be moving into a new Mario Ambassador position for the company. You can read Nintendo’s statement below:
“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!
“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.”
Speaking on yesterday’s news, Martinet commented, “My new Adventure begins! You are all Numba One in my heart! #woohoo!!!!!!!”
Besides Mario, Martinet has also been the longtime voice of Mario’s brother Luigi and their evil counterparts, Wario and Waluigi. Martinet first started working with Nintendo in 1994 for Super Punch-Out on SNES. He made his debut as Mario in Mario Teaches Typing, which also debuted that year. His first appearance as Mario in a major console game began with Super Mario 64 in 1996.
Based on Nintendo’s statement, it looks like Martinet will also be stepping down from voicing his other characters from Nintendo. More recently, Martinet was the English voice of Magenta for Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, and he also voiced two characters in this year’s global smash hit film, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, portraying both Mario and Luigi’s dad and also Guiseppe. The film featured Chris Pratt as the voice of Mario and Charlie Day as the voice of Luigi. The film made over $1.355 billion worldwide.
We have a message for fans of the Mushroom Kingdom. Please take a look. pic.twitter.com/U1ASicOuTO
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) August 21, 2023
My new Adventure begins! You are all Numba One in my heart! #woohoo !!!!!!! https://t.co/3YWYewlnXt
— Charles Martinet (@CharlesMartinet) August 21, 2023
