At the San Diego Comic-Con panel for the new season of Batman: Caped Crusader, Prime Video announced a new Joker voice actor. Matthew Needham, who portrays Larys on HBO’s House of the Dragon, will be voicing the Joker in the upcoming season.
In the first season, the Joker was a very minor character, only appearing in one episode, “Savage Night.” For his one-line appearance, iconic voice actor John DiMaggio, who plays Detective Bullock on the show, stepped in. Now, it appears Joker will have a significantly larger role, as seen in the season’s trailer. For that, they are bringing in someone entirely new.
While he doesn’t have DC experience quite yet, Needham has appeared in 17 episodes of House of the Dragon. I won’t be the only fan waiting to see if he has the chops to live up to his noir predecessor, Mark Hamill. At the SDCC panel, Needham said the showrunners specifically wanted a European Joker. The actor shared he kept wanting to do classic Joker who’s laughing and over the top, but they kept directing him to go colder, go calmer. He also says he takes inspiration from the 1979 chiller When a Stranger Calls. The voice on the phone in that movie asks the babysitter, “have you checked the children?”
Harley Quinn appeared in the first season of Caped Crusader, as voiced by Jamie Chung, but EPs Geoffrey Thorne and James Tucker explain that this version of Joker and Harley aren’t connected to each other at all.
The newer series takes place more or less specifically in the 1940s, though with a similar noir style to The Animated Series. So, the writers, animators, and actors have a lot to live up to. Achieving something similar while also trying to be unique is difficult, but after the success of season one (at least among critics), it seems they’re doing just fine.
This version of the Joker seems to take inspiration from The Man Who Laughs, a 1928 German Expressionist movie starring Conrad Veidt. Early iterations of the Joker reportedly were based on the main character’s over-exaggerated smile and makeup. Now, our new Caped Crusader Joker has just a hint of a German accent. DC has drawn from this movie/novel in the past, with a 2005 Joker re-introduction comic, “Batman: The Man Who Laughs,” and the title for “The Batman Who Laughs.” Yes, those are two different comics.
Bringing in this new (old) concept for Joker should add some interesting dynamics to his character, look, and villainy. Needham may very well be making a name for himself among DC fans, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Season two of Batman: Caped Crusader comes out on July 31 on Prime Video.