In the special video message issued today, September 7, Miyamoto recalled when Martinet made his debut as the voice of Mario in 1996’s seminal 3D platformer, Super Mario 64, his penchant for calling the Nintendo legend “papa!”, as well as the many trips the pair had taken together promoting Mario and Nintendo across the globe.
Miyamoto said he was “deeply grateful” for Martinet’s work bringing Nintendo characters to life for nearly 30 years. “Charles-san, thank you very much,” Miyamoto said.
If you have a source on this, please share it - I have not found anything to corroborate that he is being replaced by AI, although the idea that this is happening is plausible and believable.
I think this was intended as a joke about the current state of things.
That makes sense haha. I felt it worth asking due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strikes.
Super Mario Wonder and the new WarioWare already seem to have a different (probably human) voice actor, you can hear it in clips.