Superman: The Animated Series is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and the show was recently released on Blu-ray for the first time. We were recently fortunate enough to catch up with legendary voice and casting director Andrea Romano to discuss her work on the series.
Among those she was responsible for enlisting to the DC Animated Universe was Mark Hamill. His take on The Joker in Batman: The Animated Series is nothing short of iconic, and it's a role that's followed him throughout his career as closely as Star Wars hero Luke Skywalker.
Asked what led to Hamill being enlisted to play the Clown Prince of Crime, Romano reflected on how all the right pieces fell into place. "It was a series of circumstances that came one upon the other that created this whirlwind that then became Mark Hamill’s Joker," she explained. "A new producer came on to the series, didn’t care for The Joker we had cast, and asked us to re-cast it."
"The problem was, we’d already made six or seven episodes which meant that whoever was going to get the job as the replacement voice was going to have to ADR and match the timing of the previous actor. Simultaneously, just before this, Mark’s agent had reached out and said, ‘Mark is an enormous comic book fans, a huge fan of Batman, and would love to be part of the series,'" Romano continued. "So, 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.’"
"The auditions for The Joker replacement came up, we gave him a shot, and 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."
Romano also hired Kevin Conroy (Batman) and Tim Daly (Superman), and her incredible career left us with an awful lot to be grateful for. We'll be sharing the full interview tomorrow, but it's fascinating to learn what led to Hamill becoming what many consider to be the definitive Joker.