Fans of the Dungeon Crawler Carl audiobooks will hear a familiar voice when the live-action Peacock series arrives. Jeff Hays, the narrator and producer behind the Audible version of Matt Dinniman's LitRPG book series, has been cast to voice Princess Donut, one of the story's central characters.
The announcement was made live at San Diego Comic-Con during Penguin Random House's "Spotlight on Matt Dinniman" panel, according to Deadline. Hays surprised the crowd during a conversation between series writer and executive producer Chris Yost and Dinniman, who serves as co-executive producer on the television adaptation.
Princess Donut is a cat who originally belonged to the main character Carl's ex-girlfriend. When an alien invasion wipes out most of humanity and forces survivors into a sadistic intergalactic game show, the cat acquires the ability to speak and becomes Carl's unlikely partner. In the Peacock series, she can also shoot lasers from her eyes. The Hollywood Reporter described the show's premise this way in its full series description: "Coast Guard vet Carl finds himself stuck with his ex-girlfriend's award-winning show cat, Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk, as they try to survive the end of the world, fighting monsters, aliens, an insane A.I. and even other survivors … all for the sake of good TV. Survival is optional. Entertainment is not."
The Dungeon Crawler Carl book series has sold over 14 million copies across all formats and has appeared on the New York Times bestseller list for more than 115 weeks. The Audible version narrated by Hays has accumulated over 140 million listening hours.
Peacock placed a series order for Dungeon Crawler Carl in June. The show is produced by Universal Global Television and Seth MacFarlane's Fuzzy Door Productions. MacFarlane, Erica Huggins, and Rachel Hargreaves-Heald executive produce for Fuzzy Door alongside Yost. Hays is represented by Matthew N. Sugarman at Weintraub Tobin.
No premiere date has been announced.
