After decades of voicing everyone’s plumber-turned-hero Super Mario, Charles Martinet is stepping down from the role.

Revealed today, Martinet will no longer voice the beloved character in future video games. The voice talent will be an ambassador for the Mario franchise.

Nintendo of America offered this statement:

"Charles Martinet has been the original voice of Mario in Nintendo games for a long time, as far back as Super Mario 64. Charles is now moving into the brand-new role of Mario Ambassador. With this transition, he will be stepping back from rrecording character voices for our games, but he'll continue to travel the world sharing the joy of Mario and interacting with you all!

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. Please keep an eye out for a special video message from Shigeru Miyamoto and Charles himself, which we will post at a future date."

Martinet began working for Nintendo back in 1991 doing the voice of Mario at various trade shows. The voice talent made their video game debut as Mario in 1994’s Mario Teaches Typing on PC. Their official Nintendo console debut came in 1996’s Super Mario 64. Martinet appeared in the recent film The Super Mario Bros. Movie.