#ForTheGaymers NewsTuesday, 17th October 2023 by Mike

Mario’s new voice actor has been revealed, and the gays have already forgotten about poor old Charles Whatshisname

Nintendo finally confirmed the identity of Mario’s new voice actor last Friday, 13th October, after weeks of speculation following Charles Martinet’s departure in August. The iconic role, which was held by Martinet for more than 30 years, has gone to 26-year-old LA voice actor Kevin Z Afghani — who’s a relative unknown, aside from a previous bit part in Genshin Impact.

Afghani will be voicing Mario and Luigi in all future releases, starting with Super Mario Bros. Wonder, which is out this Friday, 20th October.

A YouTube Short posted by Nintendo is the best chance we’ve had so far to preview Mario’s new voice.

Now: the gaymers of Bluesky are a thirsty lot, so it didn’t take long for pictures of Afghani to start circulating — and the consensus seems to be that he’s a bit of a yum-yum.

Mario and Luigi's new voice actor, Kevin Afghani, looks handsome and smiley in two headshots that have been doing the rounds online.

User Ben (@benjimnn.bsky.social) got the ball rolling by letting the world know he’d “let the new voice of Mario punch the heck outta my bricks”, a sentiment that has attracted nine reposts and 94 likes at time of writing.

Lukas (@gaymingbear.bsky.social) replied, “I can’t handle this 🥵 I’m glad I preordered now 😌” — while many other accounts (including, shamefully, our own) chimed in with some variation on Mario’s iconic “Let’s-a go!” catchphrase. The Dragon Gay (@theboyandthedragon.gay) followed up with “U R MR. GAY” — a reference to the infamous sparkly letters in Super Mario Galaxy’s logo.

Bless.

We’ve already preloaded Mario Bros. Wonder on our Nintendo Switch, so we’ll be back with our first impressions in the coming days. And if you’d like to chat to us about it ‘on our socials’, follow us on Bluesky or drop in on our friendly Discord server.