Star Wars Fan Replaces Emperor Palpatine’s Dialogue With Mark Hamill’s Joker
Palpatine's more fun when he's jolly.
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Actor Mark Hamill was one of Hollywood’s bright and shining stars in the late ’70s and early ’80s. His leading role as Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy was like a double-edged sword (or lightsaber). On one hand, Hamill gained celebrity and success, while on the other hand (or no hand), he was typecast, as casting directors couldn’t see him as anyone but Luke Skywalker. Nevertheless, Hamill found a new direction for his career as a voice actor in various animated series and video games over the years, such as The Powerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack, and Avatar: The Last Airbender. But his best-known animated role was lending the Joker a delightfully evil voice on Batman: The Animated Series.
A clever YouTube called Parry Hotter recently mashed up Hamill’s The Joker with Hamill’s Luke Skywalker, putting a new spin on the thrilling climax of Return of the Jedi. In this iteration, The Joker’s voice replaces Emperor Palpatine’s (Ian McDiarmid), while The Dark Knight Rises‘ Bane (Tom Hardy) voices Darth Vader. The result is a strange melding of pop culture. It gets even stranger when Lando Calrissian’s assault on the Death Star and Han Solo’s infiltration of the Imperial base on the moon of Endor remain virtually unaffected.
“The Emperor Voiced by Mark Hamill’s Joker” video is only part one, and Parry Hotter plans to have the second half finished before the end of this summer. While part one features most of the action with Emperor Palpatine/The Joker, it’s unclear what part two will have in store for Luke Skywalker. Perhaps the second video will include more of Tom Hardy’s Bane-isms from The Dark Knight Rises. Nevertheless, the video is very funny and almost seamless when you consider that Mark Hamill didn’t actual record any of the voices for this video.
Parry Hotter painstakingly cut together snippets of the Joker’s dialogue from Batman: The Animated Series and the Arkham Asylum/City games to replace Palpatine’s original lines. The result is pretty smooth and not as clunky as you’d think.
As for Mark Hamill, it’s rumored he will reprise his role as the aforementioned Luke Skywalker in the forthcoming Star Wars: Episode VII for director J.J. Abrams. Hamill would join his Star Wars co-stars Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher in the new film, but their participation in the Star Wars project has yet to be officially confirmed.
While it’s unclear what the story for Episode VII will be, it’s believed that Luke Skywalker would appear as a full-fledged Jedi Master, serving as mentor to a new crop of Jedi Knights. He would basically be the Obi-Wan Kenobi role in the new Star Wars film. (Unless they bring back Obi-Wan himself…)
Hamill still voices the animated version of The Joker with his most recent stint on DC Universe Online for Sony and Microsoft Windows in 2011. He also voiced the Clown Prince of Crime for the video games Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City. Mark Hamill was won an Interactive Achievement Award for Outstanding Achievement in Character Performance in 2009, and the BAFTA Game Award for Best Performer for his work as The Joker in 2011.
