Nintendo Doesn't Plan To Announce Mario's New Voice Actor Ahead Of Wonder's Release

They're really hiding the fact that Mario is now voiced by an actual elephant.

I feel like this is a huge miss-step on Nintendo's part. I get for other characters, but given how Mario is Nintendo's flagship character, it feels odd not knowing who his new face is.

It's Hideo Kojima, isn't it?

For some, it's going to be a race to reach the credits first and share the discovery online for major clout.

@VoidofLight On one hand, this but on the other hand I get the feeling they just want to avoid having to deal with another Hayter/Sutherland situation this soon

As far as I’m concerned, they’ve found a pretty worthy replacement.
I didn’t think twice the first time I heard the new voice.

@Porky When the game’s street date gets inevitably broken dataminers are probably going to go at the speed of light to look through the game’s text files to find the new VA’s name

I'll have to go back and watch trailers for Wonder. I wasn't even aware the new voice actor was already recording. So I guess that means they made a good choice as I didn't even notice any difference

Interesting, the fact there's no fanfare makes me wonder if they're still trying to find the perfect replacement

Or they really don't wanna make a big deal out of it the same way Charles also just landed in the role of mario

Yeah they don't want the person tarred and feathered. You know how crazy those Twitter weirdos can get.

@Porky Has a "credits" button in the menu. Heh heh heh...

@TheBigK That's what I'm thinking as well.

If they reveal in advance the crazies have time to raise a huge stink and sour the launch. If the reveal comes after all the (presumably) rave reviews and player impressions any whining will be drowned out by the good press.

I swear if it’s Chris Pratt…

Total speculation on my part. I get the feeling Nintendo ditched Charles 100%. Don't know why. Maybe they feel he's too old or they want to pay someone else much less. I don't know. But the "ambassador" gig they gave him feels like it's nothing more than a PR move to save face and keep the fans from outrage.

@TheBigK You know, this actually makes a lot of sense, whoever it is might just get hated on relentlessly just because they aren’t Charles.

As long as it's not AI, I'll be fine with the new voice actor.

Great idea, let us get used to what he sounds like, everyone will have calmed down about Martinets retirement and adjusted to the new guy taking over. And when we do finally know who he is. He won't get as much backlash compared to the time of Martinet retiring.

@Ultimapunch I doubt Nintendo would let fan backlash would stop them considering they've done worse and got worse. And Martinet while vague about him leaving the role says he's still doing business with them.

Plot Twist: Mario and Luigi are still voiced by Charles, and this was all just one big, desperate publicity stunt.

Either that, or they replaced him with his evil, more successful twin brother, Marles Chartinet.

Perhaps the real Mario voice actor was the friends we made along the way.

Such an odd way go go about this

They didn't make a song and dance about Charles Martinet. In fact, I didn't know who it was for years until he became established. Might even have been the Wii era. So please give the new voice actor that same chance. I don't get why this is a big deal.

Chris pratt 😂

Just kidding, he did a good job with the movie.

@NintendoByNature It's really not. Just social media need a celeb in their games these days lol. I suppose that's what happens as gaming became mainstream. It's Hello magazine mentality for pixels! Like Mario is a real person or something lol.

I heard Kiefer Sutherland is playing the new Mario.

I suppose that means we'll find out two weeks before the game comes out, when it gets leaked online.

I hope it is:
Bob Hoskins or Captain Lou Albano.

I really hope it isn't Chris Pratt!

If it was Chris Pratt, I'm pretty sure they would brag about it... It's probably just an unknown guy that sound very close to Charles Martinet.

@Ultimapunch There is also speculation that he might have wanted to voice Mario in the movie, and has decided to move on. No evidence of this though, purely a speculative theory.

Also, if they want consistency, it would be smart to have someone mentor under Martinet.

Personally, your theory is more likely (that it is Nintendo deciding to move on).

If they make it Chris Pratt nobody can complain when he voices the next movie again.

Wa-who will it be???

Worst case scenario it’s Adam Lambert.

Pratt's voice in the movie was perfect, and was just so natural once you had settled in, and realized the over the top faux accent was gone, the brothers T.V commercial, showed it up for how cringeworthy it was.

@Dazman,

People will still complain.

At least you could be fairly sure they aren't using an ai generated voice, given how popular the voice actor profession is in Japan.

@johnvboy I will complain when he's not the new voice actor for Mario. How can Nintendo dog my boy Charles for a Pratt and then not use him in the new games!?

It’s Putin xxx

@Dazman,

Up to them, their IP at the end of the day.

I wonder how many articles Nintendo Life will get out of this one.

Please let it be Satomi Arai

It’s Doug bowser. It’s obvious

You mean not until it leaks

@1UP_MARIO Bowser voicing Mario, now that is a twist.

It’ll be Charles Wartinet, his lifelong nemesis

Charles Martinet was an external guy who happened to voice a character, like many other people out there. In Martinet's case, his persona blew up more than Nintendo felt comfortable with and there is a risk with someone like him, doing stuff Nintendo can't control. Keeping the ball low with the new one is understandable from a company standpoint, but now acting like this, is still a bit of a weird decision, as the focus of the community is now absolutely laser-focused on Mario Wonders credits. If they would just let that actor sign a ton of NDAs and reveal his name, press would try their luck for a while and eventually let go after he said "I can't answer that question" for the 1000th time.
Now, Nintendo has opened a scavenger hunt, which again is not as controllable as complete disclosure or just a huge celebrated reveal.

@VoidofLight It's obvious they're doing it because they'd get massive backlash. Do you really believe people would just welcome the VA that's replacing the one they've been hearing since 1996 with open arms?

@Chips07 Which is as pathetic as you can imagine. Upcoming media being leaked online is inevitable at this point, but it'll always say a lot about how impatient people have become, and how obsessed people are with the littlest things. The fact they've actually got to hide who the new VA is, is a fine example of that: They've got to hide is because they know some fans are crazy and would go to harass them.

@Chips07 If they want to be pathetic and impatient and waste their time trying to leak their name because they've got nothing better to do, let them. I, for one, will wait for the game to be released and play it to its end and simply wait for the VA's name to appear in the credits, like a Nintendo fan that hasn't lost their mind.

Yeah, they're not revealing the voice actor before the game because of how negatively people reacted to chris pratt's reveal. I don't blame them, its a smart move.

Realistically the name will get leaked one way or another before most can play.

I just pray it's not AI

I hope it’s someone we’ve never really heard of. Someone that could do the voice and do the characters justice instead of just some big name.

@TheBigK Yup, this was my thought. They're protecting the new actor from crazy folks online making threats for daring to take a job that was offered to him.

@Spider-Kev Those actors aren't exactly accepting new work...

I wonder if its a well known voice actor or a completely new guy to the voice acting community. Makes me wonder given I haven’t seen anybody giving a good guess as to who it is.

I assume they don’t want to bring too much attention to the new actor since they just recently announced Charles retirement from voicing the character. Since as far as I’m concerned he was the most well known voice of Mario (in the games anyway)

It was voiced by ChatSMB.

@GrailUK I guess I just mean, what's the big secret? If someone didn't ask, who cares, but might as well just get it out there. Might even drive up more hype surrounding the game(if that's even possible).

We know who's playing zelda, Ganon, FE and XC characters well in advance. That's why I'm asking its odd. Not losing sleep over it though 😉

@NintendoByNature The difference is those games didn't have a movie voice that had parts of the fanbase losing their marbles over. So I can see why Nintendo wants to tread lightly with who the replacement is

It’s clearly gonna be Chris Pratt

@UmbreonsPapa valid point. Internet gonna internet I suppose

@RootsGenoa Yeah, if it were anyone famous they'd probably announce it, my money's on "some little-known voice actor whose name will mean nothing to 98% of people who play the game"

This makes sense to me, I think is a very smart decision in leaving the new voice actors in incognito until after people have had the time to fully experience what they are capable of first hand. If there one thing I learned about Princess Peach and Ash Ketchum is definitely the fact that new voice actors improve and mold into their character over time. So far for what much voice lines of Mario & Luigi we have heard in Wonder from the new voice actor (or voice actorS since we do not yet know if both are the same guy or two separate actors), it sounds like is a promising future, our favorite plumbers seem to be on safe hands.

We also have to consider that the same case will be happening for Wario in the new Wario Ware game, not to mention Waluigi in future games.

Calling it now: it's Helena Taylor.

@Ultimapunch knowing how Nintendo is horrible, sadly this could be true

will Mario, Luigi, Wario e Waluigi be voiced by the same person or each character will have a voice actor for it own? Wario is one voice actor, Luigi too, or the same voice actor for all character?

@UmbreonsPapa Wario voice was more apparent, Wario has a new voice, the Mario Wonder Direct, showed some diffrence, small but diffrent, like Mario let go

I'm hoping for Christopher Walken.