Mario is just one of the most iconic characters in pop culture. Even if he is just a small Italian man determined to jump around silly-looking enemies to face Bowser and save Princess Peach, fans have been in love with Mario for decades. Despite having several games with the character, Mario had been voiced by one voice actor for decades. Charles Martinet. He retired, leaving Nintendo to figure out who will be voicing the character for their video games.
Surprisingly, Mario is dominating the box office charts this year with one of the year’s highest-grossing movies. Chris Pratt’s Super Mario Bros.(2023) has been a huge success for Nintendo, and while the actor could voice Mario, fans weren’t happy about his performance. In fact, many called for the actor to have his lines redone to honor what Martinet had done in the video games, but Pratt’s voice stayed the same.
Credit: Universal Studios / Nintendo / Illumination
Now, Nintendo has made up its mind about which voice to take for its future projects. Instead of going all in with Chris Pratt, it seems that Nintendo is giving Kevin Afghani a chance to prove his talent as the new voice for Mario in the new video game Super Mario Bros. Wonder, released this year on the Nintendo Switch. DiscussingFilm shared the news online on X/Twitter:
Kevin Afghani is the new voice of Mario for ‘SUPER MARIO BROS WONDER’.
The video game releases on October 20, 2023, which is quite surprising. While Pratt has a tough schedule due to all of the movies he does, he is also expensive to hire to voice Mario for every project. Even though Pratt’s time as Mario might not be well received, it seems that Nintendo wants to keep his voice separate from the video games, which is probably for the best.
If Nintendo were to include Pratt in every project, it might be a move that could hurt the franchise overall because fans just weren’t big fans of his voice. Charles Martinet had a long career of voicing Mario for fans, and hopefully, his legacy will be honored by Afghani’s performance not being too different. It must have been a tough casting process to find the right voice for Mario going forward.
It’s unclear when fans should expect a Super Mario Bros. sequel in theaters, but it’s quite clear that the animated movie is definitely a priority for Nintendo after racking in over a billion at the box office. Mario is one of those characters that will always be popular with children, and even though Kevin Afghani has some big shoes to fill, Mario isn’t going anywhere.
Do you think Chris Pratt should be Mario for all of Nintendo’s projects? Let Inside the Magic know what you think!
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Credit: Illumination / Nintendo
