Charles Martinet named Mario Ambassador, stepping back from voice recording in Nintendo games
Charles Martinet, the original voice of Mario in the video games, has been named Mario Ambassador by Nintendo – but it sounds like he won’t be the recording for the character going forward.
Nintendo said that Martinet will “continue to travel the world sharing the joy of Mario and interacting with you all”. However, the voice of the character will now go to someone else moving forward.
Martinet hasn’t only been behind Mario. He’s also previously voiced Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Metal Mario, Shadow Mario, Mini-Mario Toys, Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, and Baby Wario.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie gave the role of Mario to Chris Pratt. In the film though, Martinet had cameo appearances.
Here’s the full message on Martinet becoming Mario Ambassador and his role in the future:
Charles Martinet 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 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!
In 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.
