Matthew Needham, known for House of the Dragon, plays the Joker in season two of Prime Video's animated series Batman: Caped Crusader, bringing a notably different take on Batman's most famous villain. Rather than the manic, cackling clown of previous portrayals, Needham's Joker is calm, calculating and quietly menacing, spending much of the season observing Batman and manipulating Gotham's criminal underworld from the shadows before emerging to unleash chemical weapons on the city. The change matters because it marks a departure from the character's usual chaotic energy, offering a colder, more controlled and arguably more unsettling interpretation.

Speaking to Polygon, Needham revealed his Joker speaks with a German-inflected, flat-toned voice, a choice drawn directly from audition notes describing the character as "European and humourless"; he deliberately avoided pinning down a specific origin, believing the character's power lies in ambiguity. His main inspiration was Tony Beckley's softly spoken, threatening performance in the 1979 thriller When a Stranger Calls. Needham also described the Joker's relationship with Batman as that of "two broken mirrors," with the villain viewing himself as an evolved being trying to push Batman toward revealing his own true, darker nature.