Nintendo has confirmed that the original Mario voice actor Charles Martinet is “stepping back from recording character voices for our games”. It is not all bad news though.
While Martinet will not be voicing Mario anytime soon, he will still be part of Nintendo but as the Mario Ambassador. Nintendo recently shared the news on Twitter recently and stated that there will be a special message from Shigeru Miyamoto and Martinet at a later date. They did not specify the date, but it is possibly later this month.
“Charles Martinet has been the original voice of Mario in Nintendo games for a long time, as far back as Super Mario 64,” Nintendo wrote. “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.”
In another post, Martinet quoted Nintendo’s tweet saying, “My new adventure begins! You are all Numba One in my heart! #woohoo !!!!!!”
Martinet got the job for Mario when a friend suggested to him that there was an audition at a tradeshow where he would need to “talk to people as a plumber.” He first voiced Mario at tradeshows for a 3D version of the game character. It was meant to converse with the attendees. He was voiced Mario in a game way back in 1994 in Mario Teaches Typing. He was known to everyone in 1996’s Super Mario 64.