The original voice of Mario, Charles Martinet, is seemingly retiring from the role according to a statement released by Nintendo on the social media site formerly known as Twitter. Martinet was originally hired by Nintendo in 1991, and now he will serve in a new role of Mario Ambassador, confirming that we’ll be hearing a new voice for Mario in future games. And no, Nintendo did not say that voice is going to be Chris Pratt, who actually did just fine playing the role in The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Martinet, who is 67 years old, is likely stepping away from voice acting entirely. His first video game appearance was actually in 1994’s Mario Teaches Typing, but most were introduced to his voice in 1996’s Super Mario 64. His voice does make an appearance in the movie, where he fittingly plays Mario and Luigi’s father, Giuseppe.
Here is Nintendo’s official statement:
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.
Nintendo
