Nintendo have announced that their longtime voice actor and well-known face behind the world’s most popular plumber, Charles Martinet is stepping down from his role and is moving into the role of “Mario Ambassador.”
Charles Martinet has been in the role of Mario ever since 1994’s CD-ROM version of Mario Teaches Typing. On top of that, he also voiced pretty much every male character in the Mushroom Kingdom, including Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi.
The tweet made by Nintendo doesn’t address the reasons for Martinet’s departure, but it does say that he will keep traveling and promoting character. They also plan to publish a video featuring the beloved actor and Shigeru Miyamoto, which will hopefully give us more information on this matter.
Seeing someone else filling Martinet’s shoes will look super awkward to me, even if a hypothetical replacement turns out to be none other than Chris Pratt from Super Mario Bros. Movie (and he undeniably did a great job here). Perhaps, Nintendo will push Mario into a more dialogue-reliant direction also, but it’s just speculation right now.
We’re also yet to find out if Martinet will still be voicing Mario in the upcoming releases such as as the Super Mario RPG remake or Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Not long until we find out, I guess.