After a few months of speculation, Nintendo has finally confirmed who is the new voice actor of Mario in Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
We have known that the role had been handed over to a new performer since August. But until today, we have had zero clues about who could have recorded the vocal parts in Wonder.
Fans have been clambering in search of signs on social media and in the code of the new game.
Well, the case can officially be closed, because we now know that the new voice of Mario (and more) is Kevin Afghani.
Charles Martinet
Back in August, it was revealed that Charles Martinet would be transitioning to the new role of Mario Ambassador and would not be enlisted for vocal performances in future games.
It was also confirmed that he had not recorded the new parts for the upcoming Super Mario Bros. Wonder game.
This caught many by surprise, since he had been the voice of Mario and other characters from the franchise since Super Mario 64 in 1996.
We chose to skip the news on Retro Dodo about Charles’ departure, because we thought that introducing new energy was probably a good move by Nintendo. Charles did wear the red hat for over twenty five years, and maybe it was time.
Bringing in fresh performances seemed fitting for the new 2D Mario title, which in turn seemed to be trying a lot of new things.
Kevin Afghani
Both Nintendo and Kevin Afghani have confirmed that it was Kevin who recorded the vocal role of Mario and Luigi in Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
I am happy to see confirmation that Nintendo went with a fresh performer for the character. And perhaps it opens up new opportunities for Kevin to play the part for a while.
Kevin does not have a massive amount of familiar roles, so you may not have heard of him. His most notable work is as the voice of Arnold in Genshin Impact.
Surely stepping into the boots of Mario is a big bump for Kevin. And we’re excited to hear his work in the upcoming game.
It’s likely that we’ll only hear a few “wahoo”s and a couple “it’s’a me”s. Mario has not been known to have lengthy monologues in the games.
But with the light drama surrounding the transition, we’re more keen to pay attention to the performances and to how extensive the work actually is.
Conclusions
I’d like to congratulate Charles for his work and retirement from the character… which I personally think is a good thing.
And I’d also like to congratulate Kevin on his massive new role. I hope it opens up new unexplored avenues for Mario and for future work opportunities for Kevin as the character.
In the end, I think everybody wins in this situation – Charles still gets paid to drop his one-liners to the fans. And those fans get new energy injected into what looks like a pretty exciting new game.
What do you think? Is this a W or L for Nintendo and/or fans? Let us know over on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
