Mark Hamill Gives His Take On Whether The Joker Died In BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM
Voice-actor of The Joker, Mark Hamill recently gave his take on whether the crazy character bit the dust in, the now 25-year-old animated film, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.
With Batman: Mask of the Phantasm reaching its 25th anniversary, the voice-actor of The Joker, Mark Hamill recently spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the beloved animated movie.
Hamill spoke of the film's premiere, explaining that it wasn't a hit right of the bat. “We were living in New York at the time and I was so excited. We got to the theater and there were maybe twelve people! The people that were there were all diehard fans of the animated series and they recognized me.”
Most interestingly, Hamill spoke about The Joker's fate within Mask of the Phantasm - which has been a much debated subject ever since the film's release back in 1993. The Joker is caught up amid a bunch of explosions and it's left ambiguous whether he made it out alive.
Hamill explained spoke of the scene as such, referencing the characters many deaths throughout the rest of Batman: The Animated Series. “Sometimes you have to play the scene like he’s dying, but anyone that knows comics knows that he’ll never be completely dead. [In the animated series] I was falling off bell towers, out of airplanes, I even landed in shark-infested waters."
The actor further explained the comic-book trope in which characters never stay dead, referencing the well-known The Death of Superman storyline - which was recently adapted into an animated movie. “I thought it was funny when the mainstream media picked up on when they killed Superman in the comics. All of us comic fans laughed, we knew they were just rebooting it and wanted attention, but that made it on the evening news!”
What do you think about what Hamill had to say about Batman: Mask of the Phantasm? What's your take on The Joker's "death"?