Archak Mitra
Mark Hamill earned a name for himself with two of his roles. The first one is Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars franchise, and the latter is the voice actor for one of the most legendary villains ever created in fiction, DC’s The Joker. However, it was revealed in an interview that Mark Hamill wasn’t the first choice of the creative team. They were actually looking forward to working with Tim Curry of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Stephen King’s IT if it wasn’t for an unfortunate mishap.
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How did Mark Hamill get chosen for the voice of Joker in Batman: The Animated Series?
Aside from playing the character of Luke Skywalker from Star Wars Franchise, one of the most remarkable characters he voiced is The Joker. He has voiced the villain for quite a long period of time in Batman: The Animated Series. He has also reprised the role on more than one occasion, like being the voice actor of The Joker in the popular Arkham video games and several other animated titles from DC.
A major part of the audience believes that his portrayal of the Clown Prince of Crime is the most significant one. This version of the DC villain was outright marvelous and excellent. Hamill influenced the character image so much that many can’t imagine anyone else in that role.
“Most of you guys probably know Mark first did the voice for us in the first Mr. Freeze episode; he played the guy who caused Mr. Freeze’s wife to end up in a coma. He was so excited and full of enthusiasm for Batman. He’s a huge comic book fan and he really wanted to play one of the big villains at that time and he specifically mentioned The Joker, and at that time we were using Tim Curry as the Joker. And he was really disappointed and he said, ‘well, if anybody else shows up like Hugo Strange or somebody, give me a call.’ So many months later we made the difficult decision to replace Tim and we brought Mark in to audition for The Joker and he nailed it.”
DC’s Bruce Timm spoke at a Comic-Con panel (via CinemaBlend) for Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and explained the entire ordeal regarding how the creative team ended up choosing Hamill.
What are some projects of Mark Hamill other than Batman: The Animated Series?
Mark Hamill is a pretty established voice actor popular for his various iterations of The Joker. Batman: The Animated Series was massively influenced by Batman (1989). Hamill voice acted as The Joker in that and continued his role as the villain in New Batman Adventures and Justice League as well. From best-selling Batman: Arkham trilogy video games to the most controversial and popular Batman stories, Mark Hamill has played the role of this iconic DC villain excellently.
Source: CinemaBlend
