Nintendo isn’t revealing Mario’s new voice actor until Wonder comes out

Nintendo will allow us to discover on our own who will be the next voice of Mario. In an interview with IGNNintendo of America president Doug Bowser said the company doesn’t plan to reveal Charles Martinet’s replacement until people get the credits. Super Mario Bros. Wonder.

“I think people have recognized it when they see Super Mario Bros. Wonderthey will hear a different voice,” Bowser said. IGN. “And we’ll let that happen and it’ll be inside the credits, and people will know who the new person is at that point, but we don’t plan to make any announcements before then.”

Last month, Nintendo announced that Martinet, the voice of the most iconic character in video games for a long time, would be stepping down to be what it calls a Mario Ambassador. Nintendo also said that a special message would be coming from Martinet and Shigeru Miyamoto, hopefully explaining what a Mario Ambassador is and revealing who will be taking the reins or… the plunger, if you will. Last week, Nintendo held a 15-minute presentation for Wonder, showing more of the game coming out on October 20. Fans thought the performance would be a good chance to reveal the new voice, but now, with this interview with Bowser, we know why it didn’t happen then.

Interestingly, it seems that Martinet doesn’t quite know what a Mario ambassador is either. First reported by nintendo everythingIn a recent Q&A panel at GalaxyCon 2023, Martinet said of the role: “I still don’t know what it is.”

Over the years, there have been a couple of high-profile “divorces” between the characters and their longtime voice actors. In 2013, David Hayter was replaced by Kiefer Sutherland as the voice of Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid V after about 15 years in office. According to a report from PolygonHayter said that the decision was not his choice, but admitted that game director Hideo Kojima should always have the final say.

While it doesn’t seem like the relationship between Martinet and Nintendo has turned all that sour, Martinet’s apparent uncertainty regarding his new role and Nintendo’s apparent desire to keep the new guy a secret until he literally can’t anymore seems to indicate that there is at least some sort of disconnect.

In the GalaxyCon Q&A session, Martinet also said that he still has great love for the role and hopes to learn together with fans what it means to be a Mario ambassador in the future.