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In 2023, Charles Martinet stepped down as the voice of Mario, after having brought the iconic plumber to life for more than three decades. Mario's new voice actor, Kevin Afghani, had some big shoes to fill, and he certainly wasn't blind to the pressure of taking over the role, as he explains in a new interview.
"Look, Charles, as far as I'm concerned, IS Mario," Afghani tells USA Today when asked if he was nervous about taking on the role. "He created something that is so unbelievably iconic. And he did it so masterfully. If I wasn't nervous, then I'm the wrong guy. I'm the second guy who's doing Mario. Charles is THE guy. There is such an unbelievable respect for Charles. He is amazing."
Martinet first started voicing Mario in 1991, but not in video games. At the time, Nintendo brought a big screen displaying a 3D Mario head to conventions and trade shows, animated in real time as if the character was speaking to attendees. Martinet performed in motion capture behind the scenes, conversing with passers-by as if he were Mario.
The actor would soon start to voice Mario in various licensed spin-off games, like the PC board game collection Mario's Game Gallery and the edutainment title Mario Teaches Timing, but it was the 1996 release of Super Mario 64 that cemented Martinet as the voice of the character. He'd continue to voice Mario, and characters like Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi, for decades to come.
"I couldn't explain to you how important these characters have been to me my entire life," Afghani, a lifelong Mario fan, says. "I'm a really jokey person, and I'm a really silly person. But there's just a part of me that can't help but get teary-eyed when I talk about this."
Afghani took over the voice starting with the 2023 release of Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and has continued to play the character in subsequent releases like Mario Kart World and Super Mario Party Jamboree – games Afghani says he's continued to play plenty of. "It's definitely surreal," he adds. "At a certain point, I can disconnect and I can be like, 'That's Mario.'"
