Doom Patrol Teases Alan Tudyk’s OTHER DC Universe Job

Warning: The following feature contains SPOILERS for Doom Patrol season 2, episode 7, “Dumb Patrol.”

“Dumb Patrol,” episode 7 of Doom Patrol season 2, makes reference to actor Alan Tudyk’s work on another DC Universe series: the animated Harley Quinn. The Easter egg also subtly suggests that Tudyk’s villainous character Mr. Nobody may be a reality-traveling actor or that Tudyk himself is a secret supervillain.

Alan Tudyk is one of the most in-demand voice actors in the world and a fan favorite in science-fiction and comic fandom circles. While he’s best known for voicing The Joker on DC Universe’s Harley Quinn, he also provides the voices for Clayface, Calendar Man and Condiment King. He lent his voice to Green Arrow in both the Young Justice animated series and the Injustice series of video games, and provided the voice for K-2SO in Star Wars: Rogue One. To Browncoats everywhere, he is still recognized as Wash from Firefly and he played Bruce Wayne’s cousin Van in the short-lived DC Comics comedy series Powerless. Even in Doom Patrol season 1, Tudyk’s fourth-wall-breaking character often provided voice-over narration.

“Dumb Patrol” makes a meta-joke regarding Tudyk’s voicework and the fact that he’s the only member of the ensemble from Doom Patrol season 1 who didn’t return for season 2. The action of the episode sees Negative Man, Crazy Jane, Cyborg and Cyborg’s new girlfriend, Roni, enter into the magic painting which trapped the villains Mr. Nobody and Beard Hunter in the Doom Patrol season 1 finale. The team finds Beard Hunter, but there is no sign of Mr. Nobody anywhere in the vast empty white space that was once his domain.

When asked where Mr. Nobody is, Beard Hunter just shrugs and says that “he got a gig on some animated bullcrap.” As he says this, an animated banner appears on the bottom of the screen, promoting the Harley Quinn animated series and noting that all the episodes are now available for streaming on DC Universe. (They will also, it should be noted, soon be available on HBO Max). Beard Hunter reveals that he hasn’t seen Mister Nobody since then and he doesn’t seem too terribly concerned about his disappearance.

While this sequence may just be a cheap way to promote the Harley Quinn animated series to HBO Max subscribers who have access to Doom Patrol but haven’t seen Harley Quinn yet, its also a fun shout out to a beloved actor and an acknowledgement of the role he’s played in the series so far. And yet, with Doom Patrol being as strange as it is, one can’t help but wonder at the implications. Has Mr. Nobody decided to use his talent for narrating the actions of others to seek out work as a voice actor? Or could it be that Alan Tudyk himself has secretly been a reality-altering supervillain all this time? Only time will tell.

About The Author

Matt Morrison
(1835 Articles Published)

Matt Morrison has been writing about comics since before the word
“blogging” was coined. He got his start writing for the
legendary DC Comics digital fanzine Fanzing,
before receiving his own column, The Mount. Since then he has gone on
to write for over a dozen websites, including 411
Mania, Comics
Nexus and The Cult of Nobody. He holds both an MS in Information
Science from the University of North Texas and a BFA from the
University of Texas at Arlington. Known as a font of comic book
history trivia, he has delivered lectures on the history of American
Comic Books, Japanese Manga, Doctor Who, and Cosplay at over a dozen conventions
and served as an Expert In-Residence for a course on Graphic Novels
for Librarians at the University of North Texas. In addition to his
work for Screen Rant, Matt is currently the Editor In Chief of
Kabooooom.com and writes reviews for No
Flying, No Tights – a graphic literature and anime review site
aimed at teachers and librarians. He also maintains a personal blog –
My Geeky Geeky Ways –
which hosts his extensive episode guide for the television series
making up The Arrowverse as well as his
comedic Let’s Play videos. What little spare time he has is
devoted towards acting, role-playing, movie-riffing and sarcasm. You
can follow his adventures on Twitter, @GeekyGeekyWays.

See also  Harry Potter: 20 Things Wrong With Draco Malfoy We All Choose To Ignore

More From Matt Morrison