Jeff Hays Cast as Princess Donut in 'Dungeon Crawler Carl'
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- Jeff Hays cast as Princess Donut in Peacock's live-action 'Dungeon Crawler Carl,' with Dinniman telling fans 'we are listening' — Hays has voiced Donut for six years using 200+ distinct character voices across 150+ hours of audiobooks, which he called the de facto audition.
- Matt Dinniman hosted two San Diego Comic-Con panels and appeared at the Variety Studio (presented by Google TV), confirming he serves as executive producer alongside Seth MacFarlane's Fuzzy Door studio and Universal Global Television.
- Seth Green publicly pitched himself to play Mordecai, an alien mentor for Carl, though Dinniman said he's 'not allowed to say anything' about casting decisions.
- 'Dungeon Crawler Carl' has sold more than 10 million copies across eight novels, with Dinniman splitting the final entry into two parts (Books 9 and 10) to finish writing before the show premieres.
- Dinniman said the franchise could expand into a video game or 'Fallout'-style MMORPG, noting 'we've been definitely talking' though 'there's nothing imminent.'
Why it matters: With 10 million books sold and the Peacock series ordered just last month, casting the audiobook's actual voice of Donut is a concrete first move to protect the fanbase — a rare Hollywood gesture where audiobook performers almost never cross over to live-action roles. Dinniman also retains executive producer control alongside Seth MacFarlane's Fuzzy Door, giving the author unusual leverage to keep the adaptation faithful to the LitRPG source material.
