Voice actress Samantha Kelly learned that her 18-year run voicing Super Mario's Princess Peach and Toad had ended on the very day Nintendo Switch 2 launched, with the release of Mario Kart World omitting her performances.
While not a widely recognized name, Kelly has voiced Peach and Toad in over 70 Nintendo titles across DS, 3DS, Wii, Wii U, and Switch platforms since her debut in 2007's Mario Strikers Charged.
From Super Mario Bros. and Luigi's Mansion to Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros., Kelly has been the voice behind two of the Mushroom Kingdom's most iconic characters. She took the lead in games like Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker and last year's Princess Peach: Showtime!.
Her work extended beyond core Nintendo titles, featuring in third-party games for Nintendo systems, such as Ubisoft's Mario + Rabbids series and Sega's Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series.
Beyond video games, Kelly voiced the characters for the interactive Lego Super Mario toys, within Nintendo's Super Nintendo World theme parks, and provided Toad character voices for the blockbuster Super Mario Bros. Movie.
However, Kelly's name is absent from the Mario Kart World credits. After fans noticed the omission, the actress confirmed her tenure as Peach and Toad has concluded.
"Thank you for so many years of friendship and joy," Kelly wrote in an Instagram message to fans. "I'm sad that it's over; I truly would have wanted to voice Peach and Toad forever. Nintendo informed me yesterday they decided to recast these roles.
"I'm grateful I got to perform these voices for so long. Peach and Toad are such strong, beautiful characters, and I hope they live on forever, no matter who voices them. So much love."
Nintendo has grown increasingly strict about pre-release information from game credits, often not acknowledging a game's developer until launch. This is currently the case with the upcoming Donkey Kong Bananza, which has been playable at Switch 2 events.
Kelly's situation appears to be a strange extension of this policy, where the fact she was replaced—and thus not in the credits—was withheld from her until Mario Kart World's release.
It is currently unknown who now voices Peach and Toad in Mario Kart World and will likely voice them in future Mario titles.
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Observant fans also noted another veteran voice actor missing from the Mario Kart World credits: Takashi Nagasako, the voice of Donkey Kong for 21 years since 2004's Mario Power Tennis. Fans point out that Koji Takeda, who voiced DK in the Japanese version of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, is credited—suggesting Nintendo has aligned the game character's vocals with his Japanese cinematic counterpart.
IGN has reached out to Nintendo for comment.
This is not the first recent recasting of a veteran Nintendo voice actor. Charles Martinet, the iconic voice of Mario, Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi for nearly 30 years, was retired from the roles in 2022. Nintendo stated he would continue as a "Mario Ambassador," though Martinet later expressed uncertainty about what that title entailed.
