Mark Hamill Indicates He Is Through Playing The Joker Without Kevin Conroy: “There Doesn’t Seem To Be A Batman For Me”
With the passing of Kevin Conroy came the end of an era for an iconic Batman and for Bat-Fans, but that is not all the bad news to share in the aftermath of the silencing of a voice that embodied the Dark Knight better and longer than anyone else. For many, especially Millennials, Conroy is/was the definitive Batman.
RELATED: Iconic Batman Voice Actor Kevin Conroy Passes Away At Age 66 Following Brief Battle With Cancer
And no Caped Crusader is complete without a Joker to face and foil. Conroy’s yin to that yang was the equally iconic portrayal of The Clown Prince of Crime by Mark Hamill. Just as Conroy is celebrated, Hamill is often considered the best Joker ever and the two played off one another in a recording booth on various projects.
Their most recent pairing was in 2016 for the animated version of Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke which sadly turned out to be the last hurrah for this real-life Dynamic Duo. Even sadder, it might be the last time we hear Hamill’s unmistakable cackle as he told Empire Magazine (via ComicBookMovie) there’s no Batman in it for him anymore.
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“They would call and say, ‘They want you to do the Joker,’ and my only question was, ‘Is Kevin Batman?’ If they said yes, I would say, ‘I’m in.’ We were like partners,” he explained. “We were like Laurel and Hardy. Without Kevin there, there doesn’t seem to be a Batman for me.” Given how rocked everyone was by Conroy’s death, his remarks aren’t surprising.
A day after Conroy passed from cancer at age 66, Hamill paid tribute to the man, tweeting, “Stunned by the loss of this brilliant actor. Words can’t express my admiration and respect for the man. I loved him like a brother.” His post was tagged with #RIPKevinConroy and a broken heart emoji – a sentiment shared across social media in memory of the actor.
Conroy’s career extended to live-action when he played a Kingdom Come version of Bruce Wayne during the Arrowverse’s Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover and to videogames, reprising Batman for the open-world Arkham series and Injustice. His last role is as the Bat in that medium as a member of the voice cast for Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League.
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