The second season of Batman: Caped Crusader is here, and this batch of episodes set in a noir version of Gotham City might even surpass the first. A lot of is thanks to Bruce Timm and showrunners James Tucker and Geoffrey Thorne. But much of its success comes in no small part to the incredibly talented voice artists bringing all of these characters to life. At San Diego Comic-Con 2026, Nerdist, along with other journalists, spoke to several key members of the cast, including Hamish Linklater (Batman), Jamie Chung (Harley Quinn), and our new Joker, House of the Dragon’s Matthew Needham.
Linklater, whom genre fans know from his roles in Legion, Midnight Mass, and Widow’s Bay, sounds so eerily like Batman: The Animated Series‘ iconic Kevin Conroy, it feels like he was born to play the part. When asked if they chose him as the new Bruce Wayne based on his previous work, he admitted he auditioned just like everyone else. “Oh, man. I auditioned, I made a thing, and I sent it out into the universe. Often I would never hear anything back. But yeah, and I got lucky.” He got lucky, but so did the fans, as Linklater is truly a perfect Dark Knight.
As for Needham, who joined the cast this season as Joker, he said, “I auditioned. It was an email. They said they wanted him to be European and humorless. Which is great. It’s a really freeing thing. And the dialogue they gave me was from the Joker’s first appearance in the comics [In Batman #1 from 1940]. So it was quite a concentrated chunk of dialogue. And I sent it off, never expecting it would be me, ’cause it just doesn’t happen to people. It was mad to do it all on a phone. And did multiple versions instead of the one I thought was best, and then I just got it.”
Of course, the Joker has had so many iconic iterations over the years, including two Oscar-winning performances. So the question had to be asked: Did Needham instinctually channel any previous Jokers for his audition? “I didn’t need to go back to any iteration, because they’re all so baked into my DNA,” Needham said. “I can just close my eyes, and I can hear Mark Hamill’s Joker now. So for me, it’s a strange one, because they wanted a complete departure. So being in the booth, playing the Joker, but not being manic, not having that sort of Joker energy is a really strange feeling. Because you can sort of feel a muscle memory that you have about the Joker, and you start to go towards that. And they’re all very good at pulling me back, and sort of talking me down to being quieter, calmer. “Flatter” was an actual note.
The shadow of these iconic characters looms large for each actor, and the balance of bringing themselves to the role while also acknowledging the weight of each character was significant. Hamish Linklater said, “I think we all love our characters so much because of other people’s performances that preceded us. And just our experience of the comic books as kids, too. But, I think when you love something, you want to do right by it, and I think that’s really a nice place to come to work.” As for Jamie Chung’s take on Harley, she said, “I feel like imitation is the biggest form of flattery, and it’s hard not to imitate Arlene Sorkin’s version of Harley. But that would also be a disservice, right? This is a whole new iteration of Batman, but I kind of sprinkled in the kind of her bubbly attitude.”
The 1940s era atmosphere is a big part of the appeal of the series for the fans and the actors as well. But Linklater admitted he didn’t even realize that the show was in period when he recorded his dialogue. He said, “It’s embarrassing, but I don’t think I knew that it was in the ’40s when it started. And then I finally saw it, and I thought, ‘Oh, right. There weren’t any fancy gadgets the whole time!’ Jamie Chung cited the noir flavor as a big reason why she loves the series. She told us, “I think what I loved the most, when I did season one, was the animation. It was so film noir, and it was so beautifully drawn. The shadowing, it was just really cinematic. It was really beautiful.”
So far, Caped Crusader has treated each villain’s story, for the most part, as if it’s a little fable. So there hasn’t been much room for the classic DC Comics trope, “All the villains team up to take care of their Batman problem.” And that’s a storyline Jamie Chung would love to see, especially as her Harley and the Joker have never met. Nerdist asked if that’s a storyline the creators proposed yet, but Chung said, “I think it’d be a great time to get them all together at Arkham Asylum. And then do a breakout episode. But no. We’re not there yet.” Here’s hoping they give us a third season, so we can finally see these iconic villains team up. Or at least, play poker, like they did on B:TAS. We’d love to see a 1940s version of that classic scenario play out on screen.
Batman: Caped Crusader seasons one and two are now streaming on Prime Video.
The post BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADER Cast on Playing Iconic DC Comics Roles appeared first on Nerdist.
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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