As part of its Geeked Week event, Netflix has announced that Mark Hamill will provide the voice of Mervyn Pumpkinhead in The Sandman series. The Star Wars icon has voiced characters such as DC Comics' The Joker, Masters of the Universe: Revelation's Skeletor, and Skips of Regular Show. Netflix's adaptation of Neil Gaiman's graphic novel series will premiere on August 5th, 2022.
In Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, there is no shortage of fantastical creatures and characters that Morpheus (Tom Sturridge), the King of Dreaming, comes across, from his fellow family members of The Endless to the living nightmare that is The Corinthian (Boyd Holbrook), occultists, detectives, and the ruler of Hell, Lucifer (Gwendoline Christie). However, one of the strangest figures is Mervyn Pumpkinhead, an exhausted scarecrow-esque wisecracking figure who serves as the janitor of the Dreaming, responsible for construction, upkeep, and demolition within the realm. Following the release of the series' first trailer, Netflix has revealed who will be bringing the cigar-chomping caretaker to life.
As part of their Geeked Week celebrations and reveals, Netflix announced that Hamill would join the series as Mervyn Pumpkinhead. The Luke Skywalker actor and popular voice actor will provide the janitor's voice for the upcoming series, though there has yet to be a glimpse of the character in any currently released promotional material. It is also unknown how many episodes Hamill will appear in of the series' presently confirmed twelve episodes.
Hamill is the latest member to join the series' already-impressive cast alongside Sturridge, Holbrook, and Christie. While the cast was not announced during filming, twelve members were soon announced in May 2021, including The Good Place's Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Mason Alexander Park, and Donna Preston, confirmed as Death, Desire, and Despair, Morpheus' fellow siblings of the Endless. Alongside Howell-Baptiste, Park, and Preston, former Doctor Who Jenna Coleman was confirmed as portraying Johanna Constantine, the occult detective ancestor to popular DC Comics character John Constantine, while Patton Oswalt would be providing the voice for Matthew the Raven, an emissary, and companion to Morpheus.
After a long history of development, Netflix's The Sandman is shaping up to be one of the platform's most highly-anticipated projects currently announced, with Hamill's announcement following recent teases by Gaiman on Twitter. With a long history of varied roles in animation, Hamill is an excellent pick to portray the wisecracking janitor, with roles such as Skips of Regular Show being a good example of the actor portraying a more deadpan sardonic character. Hamill also has plenty of experience in more dramatic roles, meaning that he would be more than capable of handling The Sandman's more grounded, subtle, and serious moments.
Source: Netflix (Via Geeked Week)