On May 8, the official YouTube channel for Multiversus, which is a Smash Brothers-styled fighting game that shows famous characters from Warner Brothers properties fighting each other, revealed that DC Comics’s fan-favorite villain, the Joker, would be added to the game. As fans were already excited for the character to be added, many had noticed that the voice actor for the ‘Clown Prince of Crime’ was Mark Hamill.
This role reprisal came with excited fanfare across both the communities of the Batman franchise and cartoon fans, as Hamill has been regarded as one of the best actors who has played the comic book villain. First voicing him in 1992 in Batman: The Animated Series, the actor has gone on to voice The Joker in many cartoon adaptations of the Batman comics.
In 2022, after the passing of former Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy, Hamill announced his retirement from the role, stating that he and Conroy were “like partners” in an interview in 2023. He also stated that it would not feel right if the two were not voicing the characters together.
It does seem like the lines for “The Joker” and Batman were recorded before Conroy’s death, as his voice could be heard as “the Caped Crusader” in the trailer. This rumor has been further supported by the resurfacing of a data mine that occurred in 2022, where miners discovered voice files in the game with Hamill’s voice included.
After an early access release in 2022, the free-to-play fighter from Warner Bros. Games will fully launch on May 28. Although the gameplay’s similar mechanics to Nintendo’s Smash Brothers franchise have caused some controversy, the game has been highly anticipated by fans of American comic books and cartoons.
Multiversus has been planned to include characters from the Looney Tunes, Stephen Universe, Scooby-Doo and many more franchises owned by the studio.
