Voice actor Charles Martinet, who provided the voice of Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, and other iconic characters for decades, has spoken publicly about his new ‘Mario Ambassador’ role, and has revealed that he’s not entirely sure what it will consist of yet, either.
The news that Martinet is stepping down from his Mario series roles was confirmed last month in an official social media post from Nintendo. At the time, the company wrote: “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!”
As Nintendo Everything reports, Martinet spoke about this during a Q&A panel at GalaxyCon in Austin, Texas last week: “I am now – you might have seen the news – a Mario Ambassador,” he said. “I don’t know what that is yet. I’m not retired, as it were. […] I’m an Ambassador. And as we step forward into the future, I will learn – we’ll all learn – what exactly that is.
“But in the meantime, you know, I’ll be ‘ambassading’ as I always am,” he continued. “I’m always an ambassador of Nintendo and Mario at all these events because I just cherish every moment of it, and I hope that your love of the game continues and grows the way mine does.”
At the time of writing, it’s not known who will serve as the voice of Mario and the others from now on, but Nintendo previously clarified that Martinet is “not involved” with the upcoming 2D Mario game, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, which is releasing on Nintendo Switch on October 20. With that in mind, we’ve already heard both Mario and Luigi’s new voices in the game trailers, even if the actor’s identity remains a mystery.
Be sure to take a look at our list of upcoming Switch games if you’re wondering what other games are set to release soon. You can also see our recommendations for the best Nintendo Switch games to play right now.