Wowie zowie! (Picture: Kevin Afghani)

Following a leaked list of voice actors for Super Mario Bros. Wonder, one of them – Kevin Afghani – has admitted he’s the new Mario.

The moment Nintendo announced Charles Martinet was stepping down as the voice of Mario (and various other characters too), everyone naturally wanted to know who his replacement would be.

For whatever reason, Nintendo decided to say mum about it, prompting some desperate fans to datamine a public demo of Super Mario Bros. Wonder and share the list of voice actors online.

That didn’t quite answer the question, since the actors’ roles weren’t listed, but over the weekend one of those actors, Kevin Afghani, took to Twitter to confirm that he has taken over Martinet’s iconic roles as Mario and Luigi.

‘Incredibly proud to have voiced Mario and Luigi in Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Thanks to Nintendo for inviting me into the Flower Kingdom!’ reads a succinct post by Afghani.

If you’ve not heard of Afgahni before, he’s a fairly fresh face within the industry. His first and so far only other video game performance was in Genshin Impact as Arnold, a non-playable character who only appeared during a summertime event in 2022.




Incredibly proud to have voiced Mario and Luigi in Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Thanks to Nintendo for inviting me into the Flower Kingdom! — Kevin Afghani (@KevinAfghani) October 13, 2023




However, he has contributed to several web animations, such as a Dragon Ball Z fan series called Dragon Ball R&R, where he plays the main character, and has done voiceovers for adverts, including at least one for the Nintendo Switch according to his demo reel .

Afghani hasn’t said anything about how he got the roles of Mario and Luigi (so it’s unclear if he auditioned or if Nintendo came to him), but regardless this is a monumental step in his career and it seems the community has welcomed him with open arms.

In a follow up Tweet, Afghani writes, ‘I cannot begin to express how wonderful all of your reactions have been. I truly wish I could respond to each and every one of you, but I might explode if I tried. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.’




I cannot begin to express how wonderful all of your reactions have been. I truly wish I could respond to each and every one of you, but I might explode if I tried. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. — Kevin Afghani (@KevinAfghani) October 15, 2023




This still leaves the question of who is the new voice of Wario in the upcoming WarioWare: Move It! assuming Afghani hasn’t taken over that role too and simply isn’t allowed to mention that yet.

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Nintendo, meanwhile, is oddly quiet about the whole affair. It was already weird that it didn’t intend on announcing the new voice actor; the plan was to let people find out by reading Super Mario Bros. Wonder’s credits once the game launched.

At the time of writing, the company doesn’t appear to have acknowledged or even shared Afghani’s announcement at all on its social media pages.

Some fans have interpreted his tweet to mean he’s only confirmed as the voice for this one game, but it would be a bit weird if Nintendo were to switch voices again afterwards. Although being a bit weird is their stock in trade…

Super Mario Bros. Wonder launches on October 20 for Nintendo Switch.





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