How Hamish Linklater Tried To Find His Batman Voice For Caped Crusader

Prime Video’s Batman: Caped Crusader premiered last weekend and while fans had polarizing thoughts, it’s still floating with a Metacritic score of 81. The DNA of Batman: The Animated Series is upfront with Bruce Timm being the showrunner, but is still very much its own show. However, with the heritage of Caped Crusader, Hamish Linklater understood he had to be his own Batman.

Talking to GameSpot during this year’s Comic-Con, the Midnight Mass star explained that the shadow cast by the late Kevin Conroy is a hard one to eclipse, so he embraced it instead.

“I came up on [Batman: The Animated Series] and his voice is, I guess, in my DNA. I mean, the vibrations, you know, if you believe in string theory, as I know [Minnie does], those vibrations, they never go away,” he explained.

“But I wasn’t even, I mean, I just auditioned for this, made many, many, many tapes. I tried really hard to get it right. I knew I was not going to be cast, so it was just like me auditioning for myself. And I just kept saying, ‘No, that doesn’t sound right. That doesn’t sound right. That doesn’t sound right.’ And I didn’t realize that I was chasing Kevin so hard at the time, but I think I was and he absolutely deserves it. That’s what I’m chasing.”

The big difference is that Conroy’s portrayal of Batman is one of more an experienced Dark Knight, whereas Caped Crusader, he’s not even a month into the role. Linklater said that was something he and this Batman have in common.

“This is my first voiceover job. So yes, I just draw from myself…I just draw from my own experience if that’s in there.”

Season 1 of Batman: Caped Crusader is available exclusively on Prime Video.