16 Perfect Superhero TV Show Casting Choices That Nailed Their Characters

14. Cesar Romero - The Joker (Batman)

Cesar Romero - The Joker
20th Television

The Clown Prince of Crime has been given many performances over the years, but come on, admit it - everyone has a soft spot for Cesar Romero.

He's wacky, playful and everything the Joker was during the silver age down to a T. In fact, you'll find this is the case with most of the performances on the '60s Batman show. They may seem outdated by today's standards, but at the time they were perfect embodiments of their comic book counter parts. Yes, even the shark-repellant Bat Spray could easily have been used by '60s era Batman. He had a rainbow suit for crying out loud.

Cesar Romero may only highlight but one of the many awesome elements of Fox's TV series, but his performance is still magnetic. It's not the same sadistic portrayal audiences have become accustomed to in recent years, but it's still a seminal performance no matter how you look at it. Not only did the late actor take the trickster to the masses for the character's first proper live action portrayal, he nailed it first time. Assisted by the wonderfully hammy dialogue the '60s show is now synonymous with, Romero's Joker is a villain all generations can appreciate.

Sure, this particular villain doesn't attempt to offer a psychological dissection of the Dark Knight in some twisted spin of chaotic spontaneity, but the sheer amount of fun Romero had with the role is more than enough to understand his everlasting appeal.

Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.