Voice Actor Says Wario Was Originally Intended To Be A German Character

An interesting bit of information about Wario has recently been uncovered, revealing that the familiar Nintendo character known for his appearances in numerous Mario games as well as his own series was initially conceptualized as a German character.

Thomas Spindler, a voice actor who voiced Wario in Mario Kart 64 and Mario Party 1 & 2, explained that, in those titles, the character spoke one line of German. The line in question is “So ein Mist!” (which roughly translates to “Aw, crap!”), and quite a few people seem to have misheard it as “Doh, I missed!” along the years. Spindler left his full explanation to the origins of Wario in the comments of a YouTube video about a year ago, though it wasn’t until recently that fans discovered the comment.

Glowsquid from the Wario Forums translated Spindler’s full explanation, which you can read below.

“This is 100% correct. Wario speaks German: he says (or rather, *I* say) ‘So ein Mist!’ The recording was done in a studio of the former Nintendo head office in Kyoto (not the new Nintendo premises in Kamitobaguchi), under the direction of Mr. Takashi Tezuka. Back then, I worked on the script for another Nintendo project with my French friend and colleague Julien Bardakoff (who voiced Toad/Kinopio). My company T.S. Word Co.Ltd. also translated and edited the German script for Star Fox which can be verified in the credits of Star Fox 64. The concept behind Wario was that of a German character and those responsible for the voice-overs at Nintendo back then intended him to speak German. I hope that this resolves the issue once and for all.”