Mark Hamill doubles down on his Joker retirement – for a heartbreaking reason

The Joker in Batman: The Animated Series

(Image credit: Warner Bros.)

Mark Hamill has doubled down on his retirement from voicing the Joker – and it's for a personal, pretty heartbreaking reason.

During an appearance at Fan EXPO San Francisco, Hamill said that he won't voice the character unless it's opposite Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy, citing a Joker quote: "Without Batman, crime has no punchline." Hamill's co-star Conroy passed away in November 2022 at the age of 66.

Hamill has voiced the Clown Prince of Crime alongside Conroy's Bruce Wayne since 1992, appearing in projects from Batman: The Animated Series, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, and Superman: The Animated Series. He's previously spoken about retiring in the wake of Conroy's death, so this comment all but confirms that we've seen the last of his Joker.

Funnily enough, this means that his and Conroy's last outing as Batman and the Joker would have been in none other than a Scooby-Doo crossover episode, as pointed out by the Twitter user Scooby-Doo History. The episode, titled 'What a Night for a Dark Knight,' aired in 2019 and saw the Scooby gang pay a visit to Alfred Pennyworth in Gotham City.

Next up for Hamill is The Life of Chuck, a new movie based on a Stephen King novella from The Fall of the House of Usher's Mike Flanagan. The film will tell three stories from the life of Charles 'Chuck' Krantz (played by Tom Hiddleston), starting with his death and ending with his childhood in a supposedly haunted house. Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, and Jacob Tremblay will also star.

While we wait for The Life of Chuck to arrive on our screens, check out our guide to the rest of this year's most exciting movie release dates.

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.