Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario, is stepping down

Charles Martinet, the voice actor who has portrayed Mario since 1991, is stepping down, Nintendo announced Monday morning. In addition to voicing the world’s most well-known plumber, the 67-year-old Martinet additionally portrayed Luigi, Wario, Waluigi and the newborn variations of those characters in a couple of hundred titles throughout the Mario online game franchise.

“Charles Martinet has been the unique voice of Mario in Nintendo video games for a very long time, way back to Tremendous Mario 64,” Nintendo wrote. “He might be stepping again from recording character voices for our video games, however he’ll proceed to journey the world sharing the enjoyment of Mario.”

Nintendo says that Martinet will keep linked with the Mario universe, taking up a model new function as “Mario Ambassador.” It’s not tremendous clear what meaning, however that’s one hell of a job title.

For probably the most devoted Mario followers, Martinet’s departure didn’t come out of left area. Within the current Tremendous Mario Bros. Film, Martinet relinquished his Mario duties to Chris Pratt, which struck some followers as a bizarre selection — he did make a cameo as Mario’s father, although. In accordance with Polygon, followers additionally observed that Martinet’s iconic voice was lacking from trailers from two upcoming Nintendo Change video games, Tremendous Mario Bros. Marvel and WarioWare: Transfer It. Now, these tremendous Tremendous Mario followers have closure.

“It has been an honor working with Charles to assist carry Mario to life for therefore a few years,” Nintendo wrote. The corporate will quickly put up a video message from Martinet and Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo government and Mario creator, as a last ship off.