() – The Mushroom Kingdom will soon say goodbye to one of its oldest inhabitants.
Charles Martinet, who long served as the voice of Mario, Nintendo’s beloved plumber, is leaving the character after nearly 30 years, the video game company announced. Instead, Martinet will become a Mario ambassador to share “the joy of Mario” at international events, Nintendo said.
“It has been an honor to work with Charles to help bring Mario to life for so many years and we want to thank him and celebrate him,” Nintendo said in Monday’s announcement. The company noted that Nintendo executive and Mario designer Shigeru Miyamoto will soon join Martinet for a “special video message.”
Martinet voiced the mustachioed hero in dozens of super-popular games, from 1996’s groundbreaking “Super Mario 64” to 2008’s mega-hit “Mario Kart Wii” to 2021’s “Mario Party Superstars.” Mario’s accentuated falsetto is has become an integral part of the character, like his red hat and mustache, which have made him recognizable throughout the world.
Nintendo has not publicly announced a possible replacement for Martinet. has contacted Martinet for comment.
The voice actor thanked his fans for their decades of support in a short message on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“My new adventure begins,” he wrote in a Mario-style message. “They are all Numba One in my heart!! #woohoo!!!!!!!!”
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According to Martinet, he “snuck in” to an audition that Nintendo organized in the early 90s (Mario and Luigi didn’t speak in the first Super Mario Bros. games). In an interview with Guinness World Records, Martinet said that a casting director gave him a simple indication: “’You’re an Italian plumber from Brooklyn for a company called Nintendo. The character is called Mario. Invent a voice.’”
Martinet says he immediately started spouting instructions on how to make a pizza in Mario’s Italian falsetto. His impromptu performance impressed Miyamoto, Mario’s creator, and Martinet first voiced Mario in 1994 in a CD-ROM game called “Mario Teaches Typing.”
However, most Mario fans were introduced to Martinet in 1996 with the release of the instant classic “Super Mario 64” (IGN he rated it as the “best video game to date” at the time of its release). In the first 3D Mario game, Martinet provided voice for Mario’s screams and cheers, which have defined the character ever since.
Martinet has also given voice to other inhabitants, heroes and enemies of the Mushroom Kingdom: Luigi, Mario’s brother, the child versions of the plumber brothers and their cunning rivals Wario and Waluigi.
Martinet’s love for the plumber he plays is almost as legendary as his performance. In the interview with Guinness World Records He said that all the deliveries of “woo-hoos!” and “it’s me!” They never go out of style, and perhaps that’s why he holds the world record for most video game voice acting performances as the same character.
“I love this character,” says. “I want to be more like him: full of joy, happiness, fun and bravery.”
In an appearance at the 2021 fan expo, Martinet said that, although he would love to voice Mario forever, he would also give up the position if he no longer felt capable.
“I hope Mario will still be around when I’m gone,” he said during the fan expo, according to Game Crater. “Anyway, there are more than 5 million audio files in which I have voiced Mario. I get in the studio and record 45 takes of every sound I can think of, so I’m not going anywhere for a long time.”
And although Martinet did not voice Mario in the blockbuster “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” (a point of controversy among his fans), he did play two crucial roles: that of a supporter named Giuseppe with a familiar voice and, in a touch goal, that of Mario and Luigi’s father.
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