Last month, Nintendo announced that Charles Martinet--the longtime voice of Mario and many other denizens of the Mushroom Kingdom--would be leaving his voice acting post and transition into becoming a "Mario Ambassador." Based on remarks made by Martinet during a recent Q&A session in Texas, he's not exactly sure what that entails.
During an appearance at GalaxyCon in Austin found by Nintendo Everything, Martinet spoke about the new position, where he admitted that he doesn't know what being a Mario Ambassador is. He also clarified that he has not retired from voice acting, he is just moving on from his many roles within the Mario franchise.
"I'm an ambassador, and as we all step forward into the future, we will all learn what that is," Martinet said during the Q&A. "In the meantime, I'll be ambassading [sic] as I always have. I've always been an ambassador for Nintendo and Super Mario at all these events because I cherish every moment of it, and I hope your love of the game continues as much as mine does."
The comments come alongside remarks made by Nintendo president Doug Bowser at the recent Nintendo Live event in Seattle. Speaking with IGN, Bowser addressed Martinet's transition from the role, though he did defer to Martinet himself for more in-depth commentary.
"Charles has obviously been a voice actor with us for quite some time, and as we look for ways to keep Charles involved in Nintendo's business, we thought this was a very nice transition for him," Bowser said in response to IGN's question. "Charles is very excited about it. I'll let Charles speak to it himself if he'd like to, but we look forward to having him continue to represent Nintendo and importantly the Mushroom Kingdom as we go forward." Nintendo announced a video message from Martinet and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto would be shown in the near future alongside the news of Martinet's departure.
Bowser also referenced the upcoming 2D Mario adventure Super Mario Bros. Wonder, which will be the first with a new voice for the gaming icon, but Bowser also confirmed Nintendo will not be announcing who that is before the game's launch. "We'll let that play out and that'll be within the credits, and people will learn who the new person is at that point in time," Bowser said, "but we don't plan to make any announcement in advance of that."
Super Mario Bros. Wonder is scheduled to launch October 20 exclusively for Nintendo Switch. A recent Super Mario Bros. Wonder Direct revealed multiple details about the game, which include everything from the game's premise to power-ups and more.