Charles Martinet Will No Longer Voice Mario, Leading To Tributes And Jokes About His Potential Replacement
Charles Martinet has Wah'd his last Hoo.
Earlier this morning, Nintendo announced that after 27 years voicing Mario and a host of other characters in the Mario universe, beloved voice actor Charles Martinet, 67, is stepping back from his voice-acting duties and will transition into an ambassadorial role for the company.
While neither Nintendo nor Martinet gave a reason for the transition, their public statements seem to indicate that Martinet's retirement from Mario duties was an amicably reached decision.
Martinet has voiced Mario since 1996's Super Mario 64, cementing the character's personality as a jolly soundboard of Italian-accented grunts and "Yippee!"-s. The voice had far more staying power than earlier iterations of the character that had Mario more in line with a stereotypical New York City plumber.
Martinet's "Mario" voice has also been the subject of an unusual amount of attention after the Super Mario Bros Movie hired Chris Pratt to voice the character instead of Martinet, which was a divisive artistic choice, to say the least.
With the news that someone would have to step in to fill Martinet's shoes, social media users began joking, perhaps fearfully, about Martinet's potential replacement.
Dear @NintendoAmerica:Following the announcement of Charles Martinet stepping down as the voice of Mario, I’d like to suggest Vinny Vinesauce for the role of the plumbers. pic.twitter.com/AQ6tQOO6ir
— Ultima📛| New Era (@UltimaShadowX) August 21, 2023
However, a wide swath of social media voiced appreciation for Martinet's work as Mario, as he's quite literally been the only voice of Mario many under the age of 26 have ever known.
Dude… I’m happy to see Charles Martinet move forward with his life, but I’m really going to miss his voice for Mario and the rest. They’re so full of joy and enthusiasm. Just a pure spirit.Thank you for over 30 years of Mario. Hope everything goes well for you :) pic.twitter.com/fwRHTRUtLg
— Vinny 🌟 (@DingityDingus) August 21, 2023
Share Pin
King Crimson
I'll miss the guy, but I'm happy he made it to the end of his voice acting career with no major scandals and his legacy intact. These days that's a rare accomplishment.
Crowley
It's important to remember a couple things here:
1. He's still working alongside Nintendo, just not as a VA.
2. He hasn't quit VA'ing entirely, and can still pop up in other games (like Dragon Ball Legends).
ImperatorZor
I hope he has a comfy retirement.
Mistress Fortune
It's now confirmed he's NOT the voice of Mario in SMB Wonder, basically confirming this game will mark the debut of Mario's new VA
Given the voice sounded just different enough in inflection that you had a lot of people unsure if it was Charles or not does go to show the new guy is already doing a solid job that enough people were certain it was still Charles doing the voice. Also remember a new Warioware is releasing this year, so we'll at least know the new voices for Mario, Luigi, and Wario before the year is up (whether it's multiple people taking over each specific character or one dude voicing all of them like how Charles did it).
Maddox121
Apparently Martinet isn't the voice of Mario in SMBW… so, we already have our replacement, who is unknown though…