It was massive news when we learned back in 2023 that Charles Martinet would be stepping aside as the voice actor for Nintendo’s mascot, Mario. The actor has been attached to the character for 25 years and has garnered a vast fan base worldwide. However, Charles opted to hang up the hat and has since become an ambassador for Nintendo. Now we’re finding out that the actress who has stepped into the roles of both Princess Peach and Toad has been recast.
Thanks to VGC, we’re finding out that Samantha Kelly took to Instagram today, alerting followers of the news. Unlike Charles Martinet, Samantha Kelly wasn’t hanging it up herself. Instead, it seems that Nintendo decided to make the change unexpectedly. We’ll include the full statement provided on their Instagram post below, but essentially, Samantha Kelly revealed that Nintendo alerted her of the decision to recast the roles yesterday, the same day that they launched their Switch 2 console into the marketplace.
“Thank you for so many years of friendship and joy. I’m sad that it’s over, I truly would have wanted to voice Peach and Toad forever. Nintendo let me know yesterday that they decided to recast these roles. I’m grateful that I got to do these voices for so many years. Peach and Toad are such strong and beautiful characters that I pray they live forever no matter who voices them.”
Of course, Samantha is still grateful for all the years she had portrayed the characters. However, we don’t yet know who will be stepping into the role for future games. It’s also uncertain whether any future games are coming out that have already recorded the necessary lines. But if that’s not the case, then some of her last game releases as the character include Mario & Luigi: Brothership, Super Mario Party Jamboree, and, of course, Princess Peach: Showtime!
In other news, Nintendo has just seen its latest console release into the marketplace. One of the major news stories to emerge during the launch was that GameStop consumers found their Switch 2 units damaged. Fortunately, it has since been reaffirmed that the issues only arose in one store location, with GameStop offering replacement units.
