Highlights
- Super Mario Bros. Wonder will feature a new voice actor for Mario for the first time in decades, with Kevin Afghani taking on the role.
- Afghani is a young voice actor with a brief repertoire, including previous work in Genshin Impact and Dragon Ball R&R.
- Fans should not worry as Afghani's performance in Super Mario Bros. Wonder seems to be on par with Martinet's, and Martinet has been given a new position as Mario Ambassador by Nintendo.
The release date for Super Mario Bros. Wonder is getting excitingly close, and there's been a lot of information revealed about the game in the past few months. The popular franchise will be making quite a few new additions, including a revamped art style, twelve playable characters, and a new voice actor for Mario. Previously, the iconic Italian plumber was voiced by Charles Martinet. However, Martinet announced in August that he would be stepping down from the role that he's held since the 1990s.
As such, Super Mario Bros. Wonder will feature a new voice actor for the franchise for the first time in decades, excluding The Super Mario Bros. movie from 2023 with Chris Pratt. On October 13, Kevin Afghani announced via Twitter that he was "incredibly proud" to have taken up the mantle. However, since Afghani's name has been relatively unknown up till now, here's what people may want to know about his experience and projects.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder Will Be Afghani's Breakout Role
Interestingly enough, Kevin Zachary Afghani's current repertoire is quite brief. As of the time of this article, he's been in four separate projects, including Mario and Luigi for Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Of course, this makes sense seeing as the young voice actor is only 23 years old, though he will be turning 24 on November 9.
Prior to landing the titular role for Nintendo's upcoming platformer, Afghani did the English dub for the raven known as Arnold in Genshin Impact in 2020. Two years before this, he recorded speaking lines for Raditz in Dragon Ball R&R, a fan-made audio manga. He has also been credited for his work as Spike in the 2020 show Anime Penguin: Red Snow in addition to having voiced several characters in Mashed, an animated YouTube series that focuses on popular video game personalities like Cuphead and Sonic.
With October 20 slated to be Afghani's breakthrough role, the voice actor has spoken about how important he believes it is to breathe life into the characters he plays. On his website, he wrote that voice acting is "some of the most genuinely exciting forms of art that [he has] ever seen. Characters that exist only within the context of their media allow this art to transform into a beautifully immersive experience like no other." He added that lending his voice to popular video game characters and other mediums is how he gives "a piece of [himself] to the things that [he loves]."
Unfortunately, not much is known about Afghani's upbringing or personal life. From what he has shared on his website, he lives and works in LA. At the moment, Nintendo has not yet commented on whether the new voice actor will stay on board for future Super Mario projects.
Regardless, if fans are worried that Afghani's performance may not be on par with Martinet's, the recent promotional video for Super Mario Bros. Wonder should be enough to put them at ease. Additionally, it seems that Martinet has been granted the new official title of Mario Ambassador by Nintendo. While Martinet seemed uncertain as to what this meant at first, he shared that he would use this title to travel around the world meeting fans while sharing his joy for Mario.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder will be available on October 20, exclusively on Nintendo Switch.
