Nintendo has announced on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Charles Martinet, who has been the video game voice actor for Mario since 1991, is retiring. He will be stepping into a “new role” of Mario Ambassador. No announcement has been made about the future of Mario’s voice.
The full post reads:
Charles Martinent 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 Ambassaddor. 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.
Martinet first began voicing Mario in Super Mario 64 and has been tapped for additional roles, including Wario and Waluigi. For years he has travelled the world alongside Nintendo in order to support various Super Mario releases. He posted on X that he was embarking on a “new Adventure,” “#woohoo !!!!!!!”
io9 has reached out to Nintendo for additional comment and we will update this article if we receive a response.
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Source: Gizmodo