Charles Martinet is stepping down from his Mario video game roles

He is going to remain with Nintendo as a brand ambassador and is filming a goodbye video with Miyamoto so it seems clear there is no bad blood here, or at least not enough bad blood that money can't keep it private.

He's only 67, which is pretty early for a voice actor to pack it in, but maybe he has some injury or maybe it's just the high pitch of the Mario character, since that gets harder as you age. It's certainly not the work schedule given how little those characters say. I hope he's in good health and just made enough money that he doesn't want to work except when he feels like it anymore.

This is obviously a huge change for the franchise, but given Chris Pratt voicing Mario in the movie it seems like it's already started to happen. But this is not just Mario, it's Luigi, WaLuigi, Wario etc... Mario games will feel very different going forwards.

ETA The video announcement:

Big ol' round of applause to the man and hope he gets to enjoy his post-Mario life to its fullest.

As long as they don't replace him with Chris Pratt.

He had a great run and wish him the best, but I'm putting on the tin-foil hat. I will say Martinet getting passed up to play Mario in the official movie over Chris Pratt did more damage with the relationship with Nintendo than it first seemed. And no doing a cameo voice in the movie doesn't count. If anything, its more insulting. Just my Oliver Stone moment. This may not be the case, but I had to say it. Pink Elephants often don't have a voice, not to mention being ignored constantly.

I've seen people claim this is proof that he's not in Wonder, but I maintain that it is him, and it's further evidence that time has caught up to him. For a good while now, whenever we get new Mario lines, they've been less snappy and energetic. People have just missed it due to the prevalence of recycled older clips.

In any case, I wish him a nice semi-retirement. The dude certainly deserves it.

@av_gamer: This is possible I guess but also, having seen the Mario movie, if they had Martinet do the voice it would have been a fucking nightmare.

John St. John's wahooing as we speak.

@therealturk: Haha you know its already coming.

I just gotta say I saw an article with the headline that he "hung up the mustache".

Well the video is out (edited into my post above) and...uhhh...it sure feels like Martinet got pushed out but they're letting him hang around to do appearances and to minimize friction with the fanbase. No explanation whatsoever was given as to why the change was made, which feels really really weird. All they had to do was have Martinet say "I've decided to step down from voicing the characters in games but I love meeting you all so much I'll keep making appearances" and the fact that he didn't speaks volumes to me.

This feels...bad.

Not like so bad I'm going to raise a fuss or boycot the games or anything, which Martinet definitely isn't asking for, but it still feels bad. And...why?

The voice of Mario is iconic. Why make this change?

@bigsocrates: It's iconic, but I don't know that Nintendo would view it the same way. I mean, isn't Mario mostly just a lot of "yahoos" and "wahoos" and "lets a gos"? Seems like a situation where if you got close enough most people probably won't notice.

Also, that Mario movie made like a bajillionty trillionty dollars without Martinet doing the voice. Since that might be a lot of non-gamer's first exposure to the franchise, it probably puts the idea in Nintendo's head that the voice isn't all that important to the continued popularity of the character. If they can get a reasonable approximation at a cheaper price, then they'd probably do it.

Or, since we definitely live in the darkest timeline, maybe we should all get ready for "It's a me, Chris a Pratt! Lemme a tell you about a Jesus."

@therealturk: Of course Mario's not just "wahoo" and "let's a go!!!" He also dreams about pasta!

I don't think this is about money because Nintendo is still paying Martinet to make appearances and has to pay a new voice actor so I'm not sure how much they could be saving. Presumably if Martinet was making huge amounts and is now making peanuts he wouldn't accept the job so I'd guess he was not making enormous money (though I'm sure he's comfortable) and they might be saving a little but probably not that much.

They might think that now is a good time to switch the voice up because of the influx of potential new fans or whatever but I just don't see what's driving the decision. Possibly a desire to decouple the character from Martinet, who will have to really retire at some point, but then leaving him as Mario ambassador is...a little strange.

What strange news. I wonder if Mario will be talking more in future games? Wouldn't be surprised if they go with a different kind of voice, more similar to Chris Pratt's version: generically American, a bit gruff, vaguely Brooklyn. Would be weird to reinvent the character like that, but then it's weird to lose such an iconic voice. Mel Blanc kept voicing Bugs Bunny until he died, aged 81.

I think I'll mis his Luigi voice the most.