It’s not often that a sizable chunk of humanity does a collective spit take, but today was one of those days. Around 10 a.m. ET, Nintendo announced that Charles Martinet will no longer be the voice of Mario.
To say this is a “big deal” would be a gigantic understatement. Martinet has voiced Mario ever since he had a voice, which technically kicked off with a 1994 CD-ROM called Mario Teaches Typing. But the vast majority of people first heard Mario speak in the 1996 classic game Super Mario 64. Ever since, the high-pitched, heavily Italian-accented, cheerful calls of “Let’s-a-go!” and “It’s-a-me, Mario!” have been a pop culture staple across the entire world.
Whether or not Mario can exist separate from Martinet was recently put to the test with The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Rather infamously, Chris Pratt voiced Mario in his normal-ass voice. It proved … divisive.
The announcement also comes right before a huge package of Mario games are slated for release. Super Mario Wonder and a remake of Super Mario RPG are due out this fall, with a Princess Peach game following next year. It seems that the transition will be immediate—Nintendo confirmed to IGN that Martinet is not in Super Mario Wonder.
We were all so intoxicated by elephant Mario that only a select few fans caught the new voice in the trailer, which was released during a Nintendo Direct a few weeks ago. Rewatching it now, it’s a little disorienting. The new voice is close to Martinet’s performance on Mario’s signature “wahoo!”s, yet there are some moments that seem to go for the “Pratt approach” as well. The new actor has not yet been announced.
Martinet will not be going away entirely. The announcement breaks the news by saying that Martinet “is moving into the brand-new role of Mario Ambassador.” In fact, the statement never says, “Martinet is not voicing Mario anymore,” perhaps because Nintendo knows that this is the equivalent of splashing cold water on millions of faces. Instead, the statement says, “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!”
Whether this was Nintendo’s or Martinet’s idea is unclear. Martinet is 67, and god knows the man deserves a restful, lovely retirement. Yet “traveling the world sharing the joy of Mario” sounds like the opposite of retirement to me. It’s possible that Nintendo wanted to take the character in a new direction following The Super Mario Bros. Movie. But Martinet seems excited about his new role, and that’s all I want for him.
The reactions can essentially be divided into “fond tributes to Martinet’s work” and, for the less measured among us, “WHAT.” If it’s not totally obvious from this article, I am in the “WHAT” camp. Regardless of how you’re able to handle the surprise, it’s clear that Martinet’s performance created joy for millions of people around the world. Which is incredible.
So thank you, Charles Martinet! Wahoo, indeed.
(featured image: Gabe Ginsberg, Getty Images / Nintendo)
