"Princess Peach's Voice Actor Replaced on Switch 2 Launch, Excluded from Mario Kart World"

Voice actor Samantha Kelly learned her 18-year run voicing Princess Peach and Toad in Super Mario games ended on the day the Nintendo Switch 2 launched — when Mario Kart World dropped without her name in the credits.

Kelly may not be a household name, but she’s been the voice of Peach and Toad in over 70 Nintendo titles since Mario Strikers Charged launched in 2007, spanning Nintendo DS, 3DS, Wii, Wii U, and Switch.

From Super Mario Bros. to Luigi’s Mansion, Mario Kart to Super Smash Bros., Kelly brought life to two of the Mushroom Kingdom’s most iconic characters — including when they took center stage in games like Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker and last year’s Princess Peach: Showtime!

And beyond video games, Kelly voiced these characters for interactive LEGO Super Mario toys, within Nintendo’s Super Nintendo World theme parks, and — as other Toad characters — in Nintendo’s billion-dollar box office hit, The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

But you won’t hear her in Mario Kart World. After fans noticed her absence from the credits, Kelly confirmed her time as Peach and Toad has come to an end.

“Thank you for so many years of friendship and joy,” Kelly wrote in an Instagram post to fans. “I’m heartbroken it’s over — I truly thought I’d voice Peach and Toad forever. Nintendo told me yesterday they’ve recast these roles.

“I’m deeply grateful for the chance to bring them to life for all these years. Peach and Toad are such powerful, beautiful characters — I hope they live on forever, no matter who speaks for them. So much love

Nintendo has grown increasingly tight-lipped about credit details ahead of game releases — so much so that it often withholds developer credits until launch. (This is currently the case with the upcoming Donkey Kong Bananza, whose demos have already been shown at Switch 2 hands-on events.)

Kelly’s experience feels like an odd extension of this policy — where the fact that she’d been replaced was kept from her until Mario Kart World went live.

Right now, it’s unknown who will voice Peach and Toad in Mario Kart World — or in future Mario games.

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Sharp-eyed Nintendo fans have also noticed another veteran voice actor missing from Mario Kart World’s credits: Takashi Nagasako, who has voiced Donkey Kong since 2004’s Mario Power Tennis. In this instance, fans observed that Koji Takeda — who voiced DK in the Japanese version of The Super Mario Bros. Movie — is credited, suggesting Nintendo has synced the game’s DK grunts to the film’s Japanese voice actor.

IGN has reached out to Nintendo for comment.

This isn’t the first recent time Nintendo has replaced a longtime voice actor. Charles Martinet, the energetic performer behind Mario, Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi, stepped down after nearly 30 years in 2022. At the time, Nintendo said Martinet would remain with the company as “Mario Ambassador,” though Martinet later admitted he wasn’t entirely sure what that role entailed.