Charles Martinet says he doesn’t know what his ‘Mario Ambassador’ role means yet

Charles Martinet has said that he doesn’t yet know what his new role of ‘Mario Ambassador’ entails.

Last month Nintendo announced that Martinet – who has voiced the mascot for over 25 years – will be stepping down from voice acting duties and will instead be taking on the new Mario Ambassador role.

However, as spotted by Nintendo Everything, Martinet said in a Q&A panel at Galaxycon in Austin, Texas over the past weekend that he wasn’t quite sure what the role actually means yet, and stressed that he hadn’t chosen to retire.

“I am now, you might have seen on the news, a Mario Ambassador,” Martinet told the fans in attendance.

“I don’t know what that is yet. I’m not retired, as it were. I don’t know how… but I’m an Ambassador. And as we step forward into the the future, I will learn – we’ll all learn – what exactly that is.

“But in the meantime, you know, I’ll be ‘ambassading’ as I always am. I’m always an ambassador of Nintendo and Mario at all these events because I just cherish every moment of it, and I hope that your love of the game continues and grows the way mine does.”

Martinet asked the audience not to ask any more questions about the role, saying “I don’t know anything about it yet”, so the rest of the Q&A was similar to others focusing on his role voicing Mario.

Speculation about Martinet’s role as Mario grew in June, following the announcement of several new Mario-themed games, including Super Mario Bros Wonder and WarioWare: Move It.

Both these trailers featured soundbites from characters traditionally voiced by Martinet, but some believed they didn’t quite sound like him, to the point where ‘Charles Martinet’ was one of the trending topics on Twitter following the announcements.

Nintendo finally announced on August 21 that Martinet would be stepping down from the iconic role, saying: “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.”