Nintendo initially announced Charles Martinet stepping down from the voice of Mario, Luigi, Wario and Waluigi and instead taking on a new role as an official Mario Ambassador on August 21, 2023. Fast forward to today, a follow-up video has been released with more details about what this entails. In the video, Martinet shares a heartfelt message to franchise fans for being a part of the Mario universe’s family, with Shigeru Miyamoto stepping in to provide further context.
Martinet initially starts the video by sharing some joyful imitations of his most iconic characters from the Mario franchise, followed by a quick announcement of taking on a new role as the Mario Ambassador. While the exact details of the Mario Ambassador were unclear before, he describes it as “traveling around the world, sharing the joy of the Mario family, and being able to continue meeting with all of you wonderful fans, who I cherish absolutely the most”. It provides more opportunities for him to attend events worldwide to meet and greet fans, representing Mario and the gang.
Following this message from Martinet is a further explanation from Shigeru Miyamoto, describing memories with Martinet before strengthening the point that the main purpose of the Mario Ambassador is to travel around the world to interact with fans at events.
Miyamoto also reiterates the additions of new voice actors for various Mario characters starting with the release of Super Mario Bros. Wonder in October after highlighting that Martinet will still “continue to travel around the world and meet fans, performing the familiar voices at events, signing autographs, and enjoying interacting with you all.”
As of now, it’s unclear what the future of the Mario franchise will look like with Martinet stepping down as the voice of the series’ most iconic characters. Still, one thing is certain: his impact will continue, and we’ll surely anticipate his appearance as events as he continues spreading the joys of our childhood games.
