9 Mind Blowing "What If?" Scenarios That Almost Changed Comics Forever

5. Tim Curry Plays The Joker (And Mark Hamill Doesn't)

Batman: The Animated Series stands today as being the darkest and most intelligent use of the Batman license outside of the comics medium... well, ever. It's seminal in so many ways, beautiful in many more, but it wouldn't be what it is today without its voice actors.

Kevin Conroy's Batman and Mark Hamill's Joker are, without doubt, the two most definitive versions of the Dark Knight and the Clown Prince of Crime. Hamill in particular is totally unrecognisable in the role, crafting a voice and laugh that, while charming in many respects, was terrifying when it had to be. Luke Skywalker, eat your heart out.

Strangely enough though, Hamill wasn't the actor originally meant for the part. Tim Curry (yes, Pennywise himself) was actually meant to take to the mic as Batman's arch nemesis, and while rumours of his dismissal had floated around for years, the real reason for it was finally revealed this year.

Hamill, originally booked in to play the part of Ferris Boyle in the critically-lauded Heart of Ice, was asked to play the Joker after Curry fell ill with a nasty case of bronchitis. The rumour until then had been that the producers had found his voice too scary for kid's TV, but to find out he lost the role due to being ill is, while admittedly anticlimactic, indicative of how close he came to being the BTAS Joker.

One can only speculate as to how Curry would've done the voice, having already played one creepy clown in Stephen King's IT, but if finding out means losing Hamill's clown, then we never want to know.