Kevin Afghani stepped into the voice role of Mario, Luigi, and Wario in 2023. He took over the job after Charles Martinet, who voiced the fireball-throwing plumber for many years, was confirmed to be “stepping back” from voicing him to turn into a “Mario Ambassador.” This weekend, Afghani is making his first American conference look at Charlie’s Comedian Con in Florida, and he did an interview with USA Today to speak about taking over the job of voicing Nintendo’s mascot. He had a number of reward for his esteemed predecessor.
“Look, Charles, as far as I’m concerned, is Mario,” Afghani instructed USA In the present day. “He created something that is so unbelievably iconic. And he did it so masterfully. If I wasn’t nervous, then I’m the wrong guy. I’m the second guy who’s doing Mario. Charles is THE guy. There is such an unbelievable respect for Charles. He is amazing.”
Afghani says he’s a long-time Mario fan who spent a number of his life “mimicking” Martinet’s Mario and Luigi performances, so these characters are “important” to him, and he views taking over the job as carrying them on to allow them to “keep being important to other people.”
“I couldn’t explain to you how important these characters have been to me my entire life,” he stated. “I’m a really jokey person, and I’m a really silly person. But there’s just a part of me that can’t help but get teary-eyed when I talk about this.”
Although Martinet’s final credit score as Mario was in 2022’s Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, he did have a small cameo in The Super Mario Bros. Movie in 2023 as Mario’s dad. In response to Martinet, he’s allowed to perform Mario’s voice for fans, however received’t improvise dialogue, so don’t anticipate him to open up a Cameo to report voice messages for followers as Mario anytime quickly.
