Batman:The Animated Seriesvoice and casting director Andrea Romano discussed what the casting process for The Joker role was like for the actor Mark Hamill. To date, bothBatman: The Animated Seriesand Hamill’s Joker are regarded by many as the definitive takes on the Caped Crusader and his arch-enemy.
Nearly all adaptations ofBatmanpit the Caped Crusader against the Joker sooner or later. While Hamill’s Clown Prince of Crime surpasses even the acclaimedJoker performance by Heath Ledgerin the eyes of many,the revered voice actor was not the original person cast as the villain forBatman: The Animated Series.
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“A new producer came on to the series, didn’t care for The Joker we had cast, and asked us to re-cast it,” Romano said during an interview with ComicBook.com. The issue for the team, however, was that they had already made six or seven episodes, so whoever was cast asthe new Jokerwould have to record their lines in a way that it would match with the lip-sync of the footage. Romano goes on to say, “just before this, Mark’s agent had reached out and said, ‘Mark is an enormous comic book fan, a huge fan of Batman, and would love to be part of the series.”
Romano continues the story by saying, “I brought him in as a guest and he did a great job, telling all sorts of fabulous stories to everybody in the room and was wonderful in the role. He pulled me aside after the session and said, ‘Thank you for this gig, Andrea, but I really want to be a part of Batman.” After the auditions for the Joker were brought up, Hamill was instead given a shot to try out for the role. Romano said of Hamill’s audition, “he was stunning! Absolutely remarkable. His timing was right on, he came up with this terrifying voice and an iconic laugh and I think that’s the voice everybody hears when they think of The Joker. Even when they’re seeing on-camera performances, they can’t help but reference Mark Hamill in their minds.”
Mark Hamill’s Joker is hands down one of the best performances of the iconic clown villain, especially in the animated and video game realm. The laugh, the cadence, and twisted voice all embody the spitting image of the Clown Prince of Crime. As far as the live-action realm goes, many look to Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger,and Joaquin Phoenix.
Joker is the one character that many often use in their stories, but he’s starting to feel like an overused villain. Joker is the common foil to Batman in many stories, whether it be comic books, video games, cartoons, and movies. However,Batman has a diverse rogue’s gallery, so it’s a shame to not see most of his villains used in a lot of these stories.
Batman: The Animated Seriesis available to stream on HBO Max.
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