The Voice of Nintendo's Mario is Retiring After 27 Years

You may not know his name, but you've definitely heard his voice. Now, 27 years after first appearing in the 1996 Nintendo game Super Mario 64, voice actor Charles Martinet is retiring from the role of Super Mario.

In addition to Mario, the 67-year-old also voices Luigi, the villain Wario, and Donkey Kong, as well as several other characters. It's unclear who will voice the characters in the popular video game franchise going forward, but Nintendo says Martinet will transition to a new role.

"Charles is now moving into the brand-new role of Mario ambassador," the company said in a statement on Monday. "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!"

"It has been an honor working with Charles to help bring Mario to life for so many years and we want to thank and celebrate him," the statement added. "Please keep an eye out for a special video message from (video game designer and Mario creator) Shigeru Miyamoto and Charles himself, which we will post at a future date."

"My new Adventure begins! You are all Numba One in my heart!" Martinet tweeted, sharing the statement, adding Mario's trademark "Woohoo!" at the end.

In a Great Big Story segment in 2017, Martinet explained how he landed the life-changing role by crashing an audition in 1990, following years of theater, film, and television projects. After just catching the casting agents on their way out, they allowed him to read for the part, giving him only the guidance that he was supposed to be "an Italian plumber from Brooklyn."

Suffice to say, Martinet crushed the impromptu audition, and the rest was history.

In a full circle moment, Martinet's final appearance in the Super Mario universe was playing Mario and Luigi's father Giuseppe in The Super Mario Bros. Movie earlier this year, opposite Chris Pratt and Charlie Day, respectively.

"You know, there's something kind of beautiful about [Charles Martinet] concluding his time as Mario's voice actor with his final performance literally being the FATHER of Mario," Andre Segers founder of the YouTube channel GameXplain tweeted on Monday, shortly after the news broke.

Congrats to Martinet on the next chapter in his career.