Update: Nintendo has confirmed that Charles Martinet does not provide the voice of Mario in the upcoming Super Mario Bros Wonder.
"While Charles is not involved in the game, we're excited to honor his legacy and contributions, including looking ahead to what he'll be doing as a Mario Ambassador," Nintendo says in a statement to GameSpot.
Original story: After 32 years providing the legendary voice of Mario, Luigi, and numerous other Mushroom Kingdom characters, Charles Martinet is stepping down from his acting duties to serve as a "Mario Ambassador."
"Charles Martinet has been the original voice of Mario in Nintendo games for a long time, as far back as Super Mario 64," the company says in its announcement. "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!"
You can at least read Martinet's message on the news in Mario's voice, for old time's sake.
My new Adventure begins! You are all Numba One in my heart! #woohoo !!!!!!! https://t.co/3YWYewlnXtAugust 21, 2023
While Nintendo notes that Martinet was playing Mario "as far back as Super Mario 64," his role actually goes even further back than that - to 1991. Nintendo first contracted Martinet to play the character for Mario in Real Time, an interactive system developed for trade shows that allowed an on-screen 3D version of Mario to interact with passersby in, well, real time.
In various interviews, Martinet has said he essentially crashed the Mario audition at the last minute despite having no familiarity with the character. He'd originally intended to play a more stereotypical idea of a gruff Italian American plumber from Brooklyn, but soon settled on something that would sound friendlier to kids - the iconic falsetto we know Mario for today was actually based on Martinet's previous portrayal of Gremio from Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.
Martinet would go on to voice Mario in the PC spinoffs, Mario Teaches Typing and Mario's Game Gallery, before defining the character forever in 1996 with Super Mario 64. He would go on to voice a fair bit of Mario's extended cast, including Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi. He's had a number of non-Nintendo roles in film, TV, and video games, too - perhaps most notably, he played the dragon Paarthurnax in Skyrim.
Nintendo's message does not confirm whether or not Martinet voices Mario in the upcoming Super Mario Bros Wonder, and some fans had already been wondering if he'd been replaced as of that game's first trailer back in June. At this point, it's unclear what Martinet's final appearance as Mario will have been, but there's a decent chance his cameos in The Super Mario Bros Movie will have marked his final contribution to the Mushroom Kingdom.
Nintendo concludes its announcement by saying "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."
Relive the best of Martinet's legacy with the best Mario games of all time.
