Since Super Mario 64, Charles Martinet has been the voice of Mario in countless Nintendo games—and the voice of Luigi, and Wario, and more characters inside the Mushroom Kingdom. Now, he’s hanging up his plumber’s cap, so to speak: The 67-year-old voice actor is “moving into the brand-new role of Mario Ambassador.”
My new Adventure begins! You are all Numba One in my heart! #woohoo !!!!!!! https://t.co/3YWYewlnXt
— Charles Martinet (@CharlesMartinet) August 21, 2023
Martinet has actually been voicing Nintendo characters since before Super Mario 64: He was originally hired to be the unseen voice of Mario at trade shows. But over the years, he’s voiced the leading character and many more times in a whole host of games, from Mario Teaches Typing to last year’s Mario Strikers: Battle League. In a 2022 interview, Martinet told Games Radar that he even dreams as Mario, which frankly sounds delightful (in dreams, you probably don’t even need a super leaf in order to fly).
What exactly “Mario Ambassador” means isn’t quite clear, other than, “sharing the joy of Mario and interacting with you all!” Nintendo’s announcement says that there’s a video from Martinet and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto coming, so perhaps that will tell us a little more. And presumably, before long Nintendo will announce who is voicing their iconic characters in future games… one can only hope that it is not Super Mario Bros. Movie star Chris Pratt.
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