Batman: The Animated Series made Mark Hamill the definitive Joker voice, but he initially thought it wouldn't happen, given his notably heroic Star Wars role at the time.
"So when I went in, I thought, 'You think they're gonna hire Luke Skywalker to play the Joker? The fans will lose their minds!' I was so sure that I couldn't be cast," Hamill said while discussing his audition process with WIRED. Describing himself as "completely relaxed" during the audition, the Star Wars star noted, "A lot of times there's performance anxiety because you want the part, here I knew I couldn't get the part, so, who cares? And I drove out of the parking lot thinking, 'That's the best Joker they'll ever hear, and it's too bad they can't cast me.' And as soon as they did cast me, it reversed. I was like, 'Oh no, I can't do this!'"
What partially inspired Hamill to read for Joker was Michael Keaton, who overcame massive fan backlash to his Batman casting a few years earlier. "'Oh, he's Mr. Mom, he's a comedy actor.' I mean, they hadn't even seen him and they didn't realize how great he would become. But, there was great controversy," Hamill said about the Tim Burton film's production. Keaton, who will reprise his Batman role in The Flash this month, is now seen by fans as one of the most popular versions of the Caped Crusader to date.
Hamill, meanwhile, received widespread acclaim in Batman: The Animated Series, which premiered in 1992, for his performance as Joker alongside the late Kevin Conroy's Bruce Wayne/Batman. In addition to 1993's Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, the duo frequently reprised their roles as Batman and Joker in various media, from other DC Animated Universe shows to animated movies and Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham video game trilogy. Other notable DC characters voiced by Hamill include Swamp Thing, Solomon Grundy, and The Trickster, a villain he played in live-action on 1990's The Flash show and the CW Arrowverse.
Will Mark Hamill Voice the Joker Again?
Following Conroy's death in November 2022, Hamill -- who recently starred opposite Bert Kreischer in The Machine -- cast doubt on the idea of returning as the Joker without his longtime voice-acting co-star. "We were like partners. We were like Laurel and Hardy. Without Kevin there, there doesn't seem to be a Batman for me," he said. Additionally, the Luke Skywalker actor said he didn't "have any expectations" of appearing in Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy's Star Wars film, which will see Daisy Ridley return as Rey Skywalker.
Batman: The Animated Series is available to stream on Max.
Source: YouTube