Mark Hamill Comments On Lost ‘Batman: The Animated Series’ Episode

Even if you purchased the recently released Batman: The Animated Series complete series Blu-ray box set, there’s one story from the series that you won’t find included. Now Mark Hamill, the voice of the Joker, has commented on “The Lost Episode.”

The episode is actually made up of footage from the Sega CD version of The Adventures of Batman and Robin video game. Released in 1994, the title was released on SNES, Sega Genesis, Sega Game Gear, and Sega CD, with each version of the title essentially being an entirely different game. For example, the SNES version – the most popular of them all – was a traditional side-scrolling action-platformer where each level was based on an episode of the television series.

The Sega CD version was something very different. Instead of a sidescroller, the Sega CD version’s gameplay was made up entirely of vehicular chases where the player controlled either the Batmobile or the Batplane. The story was strung together via cutscenes between levels.

These cutscenes were entirely original and created by much of the same team that created Batman: The Animated Series itself. They were produced by Warner Bros. Animation, animated by Tokyo Movie Shinsha, written by Paul Dini, and directed by Bruce Timm. They also featured the voice cast of the show, including Kevin Conroy (Batman), Loren Lester (Robin), Robert Hastings (Commissioner James Gordon), Robert Costanzo (Harvey Bullock), Diane Pershing (Poison Ivy), John Glover (the Riddler), Arleen Sorkin (Harley Quinn), Mark Hamill (the Joker), John Vernon (Rupert Thorne) and Ron Perlman (Clayface).

Thanks to all of that, watching the cutscenes all in sequence without the gameplay (which you can do by checking out the video above) feels like watching an episode of Batman: The Animated Series. The only major difference is that that the cutscenes feature an electronic soundtrack instead of Shirley Walker’s orchestral score from the show.

The high quality of the cutscenes and its close association with the Batman: The Animated Series cast and creative team has led many fans to consider the story a “lost” episode of the show.

On Twitter, Mark Hamill admits that he remembers recording his lines for the game, but never had the chance to see the finished product.

“‘Yowza Yowza, Ladies & Germs!’- A ‘LOST’ BATMAN EPISODE,” Hamill tweeted. “I remember recording for this project, but I never owned a Sega game console, so this is the 1st time I’ve seen this footage. Joker comes in around 8:15 & features the only time I ever referred to Bats as ‘Guano’!”

What do you think of this “lost episode” of Batman: The Animated Series? Let us know in the comments!

Batman: The Animated Series is now available on Blu-ray and the stream in HD via DC Universe.