Charles Martinet has retired as Mario

Sadly, the inevitable has happened.

In a tweet posted on the official Nintendo account, as of August 2023, Charles Martinet has retired as Mario and likely all the other characters he’s voiced for Nintendo, including Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi. It was a long time coming. The guy is 67 years old and has been voicing the Italian plumber for over 30 years. In the past, he has admitted that his age was making it difficult to keep the voice up, and even in the trailer for Super Mario Bros. Wonder, people could tell that Mario sounded different. He hasn’t retired fully from voice acting and has moved on to being a Mario ambassador (essentially just promoting anything Mario-related when needed), but it’s still a damn shame the time has come.

Charles Martinet first voiced Mario in 1991 at videogame trade shows in “Mario in Real-Time,” where people would approach a TV screen to talk to a 3D floating Mario head while Martinet puppeted the digital character from behind the scenes, watching through a camera. However, his first major exposure as the character was in 1996's Super Mario 64. He has voiced Mario in games before, like on a pinball machine and in some edutainment games, but this is where many people first heard of his take on the Italian plumber. He would then go on to voice the character in over 100 games, which was recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records by the time Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was released.

However, he wasn’t just Mario. He was Orvus in Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time, Magenta in the dubs of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, and he was freaking Paarthurnax in Skyrim! And that’s just talking about his appearance in videogames, he’s been in plenty of films and TV shows throughout the years.

But sadly, all good things must come to an end someday, and that day is today as of writing.

"I want to voice Mario until I drop dead." -Charles Martinet, 2021

Man, that quote is a lot harsher in hindsight now.

His last acting role in a Mario project is actually in The Super Mario Bros. Movie as the father of the titular plumbers, where Chris Pratt was infamously cast for the role of Mario. I have seen people joke or seriously suggest that Pratt will take over as the Koopa-stomping hero, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon, considering the massive actor and writer’s strike currently happening that has put the sequel on hold.

So… yeah. Thank you, Charles Martinet, for making a lot of childhoods that much more fun. I hope the rest of your years are spent living peacefully.