Wa-hoo! We’re getting a new Mario! Charles Martinet, the Nintendo company man who has voiced English-language Mario since 1991, is-a retiring from doing the Mario voice. Nintendo shared a statement on social media revealing the decision. “Charles is now moving into the brand-new role of Mario Ambassador,†it reads. “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!†The post also promised an upcoming video from Martinet and Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto.
The replacement Mario has yet to be announced. Axios’s Stephen Totilo confirmed in a post (née tweet) that the announcement would be confirmed through game credits, and, with Super Mario Wonder coming up in October, we might have to wait and see. But could Nintendo just pop in and confirm it’s not Chris Pratt? Please say it’s not Chris Pratt.