Author Matt Dinniman has confirmed that Jeff Hays, the longtime narrator of his "Dungeon Crawler Carl" audiobooks, will voice the talking cat Princess Donut in Peacock's upcoming live-action adaptation of the fantasy novel series. Speaking at San Diego Comic-Con, Dinniman said the casting was intended to reassure a fanbase wary of adaptations disappointing them, framing it as evidence that the creative team is "listening" to reader feedback as the show moves into production.

The "Dungeon Crawler Carl" series, which began as a self-published novel in 2019 and has since grown to eight books selling more than 10 million copies, follows a Coast Guard veteran forced to survive an alien-run, video game-style dungeon alongside his companion Donut. Hays has voiced Donut and more than 200 other characters across the audiobooks for six years and around 150 hours of narration, which Dinniman said made him a natural, low-risk choice for the TV role as Peacock develops the series.