“Wahoo, wahee,” indeed. After months of speculation, Nintendo affirmed the new VO actor for Mario is the Los Angeles-based voice actor Kevin Afghani.
Afghani said he was providing the tenor for both Mario and Luigi in a post to his X, formerly known as Twitter, account on Friday.
“Incredibly proud to have voiced Mario and Luigi in Super Mario Bros. Wonder,” he wrote. “Thanks to Nintendo for inviting me into the Flower Kingdom!”
Nintendo confirmed to multiple outlets that Afghani will be performing every instance of “it’s-a me” for the upcoming Super Mario game for the Nintendo Switch set to release on Oct. 20.
In an email to Gizmodo, Nintendo provided a brief statement confirming “the voice actor’s name is Kevin Afghani.”
Afghani has some big shoes to fill since longtime Mario voice actor Charles Martinet announced he was stepping out of Mario’s big brown shoes back in August and was instead comfortably slipping into the role of a “Mario Ambassador.” This was only after fans noticed Mario definitely sounded different in the upcoming Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Martinet voiced the character since 1996's Super Mario 64 and also provided the grunts and barks for Wario and Waluigi.
Gizmodo reached out to Afghani, and we’ll update our story if we hear back. According to his IMDb profile, the VO actor has previously voiced the character Arnold in Genshin Impact and portrayed Raditz in the Dragon Ball R&R anime.
Nintendo finally admitted to the voice actor’s name after an unverified list of performers appeared first on 4chan and then spread to the wider internet. The list was reportedly lifted from a kiosk demo for Super Mario Bros. Wonder. That list also included the names of other voice actors in other languages, though it might hint at the full cast for the upcoming game that includes Kenny James again doing the voice of Bowser and Bowser Jr., while Samantha Kelly is reprising her role as Princess Peach, Toad, and Todette. Also included was Mick Wingert, who voiced characters like Heimerdinger in the 2021 Arcane Netflix show, though it remains unclear which voices he performed.
Nobody could do exactly what Martinet did for over 17 years, but Afghani has the task of providing a similar sense of peppy momentum to Mario’s famous barks. While it may be a big mantle for any VO actor to take on, fans will be able to become acquainted with Afghani’s take on Mario later this month.