When Dungeon Crawler Carl makes the jump from bestselling books and audiobooks to live-action television, one of its most recognizable voices will make the transition with it.
Jeff Hays, the narrator responsible for bringing Matt Dinniman’s sprawling cast of characters to life across the Dungeon Crawler Carl audiobooks, will voice Princess Donut in Peacock’s upcoming live-action adaptation. The casting was announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2026, where Hays joined Dinniman and series writer and executive producer Chris Yost during a panel devoted to the rapidly expanding franchise.
For listeners who discovered Dungeon Crawler Carl through its audio editions, Hays continuing as Donut creates an unusual connection between the original adaptation and the television series. Audiobook narrators frequently become closely associated with characters among listeners, but those performances don’t necessarily survive when a property moves to the screen. In this case, one of the voices that helped define the franchise will remain intact.
The announcement also gives Hays a new challenge. After years of performing Donut as one character within an enormous audiobook ensemble, he will now carry that performance into a production where Donut exists alongside live-action actors and a visual representation of the character.
Jeff Hays Helped Define Princess Donut Through Audio
Dungeon Crawler Carl begins with an absurd premise that becomes considerably larger as the story develops. After Earth is transformed into a deadly dungeon controlled by an alien civilization, Carl enters the game accompanied by Princess Donut, his ex-girlfriend’s prize-winning show cat. Donut soon becomes much more than an animal sidekick, developing into one of the central personalities of the series.
Hays has been responsible for translating that personality into audio. As narrator of the audiobook series, he doesn’t simply provide Carl’s narration while leaving other performers to handle the dialogue. He performs a large collection of characters himself, shifting between voices, personalities and vocal characteristics throughout the story.
Princess Donut has become one of the most recognizable examples of that work. Her theatrical personality, confidence and increasingly complicated relationship with Carl give Hays material that can move rapidly between comedy and more emotional moments. The performance also has to sound distinct enough that listeners immediately understand who is speaking during scenes involving multiple characters.
Hays’ association with the series extends beyond performing the books. He is also the founder and CEO of Soundbooth Theater, the audio production company that has expanded into immersive productions and full-cast audio experiences. His work with Dungeon Crawler Carl has nevertheless become one of the most visible examples of his ability to create an entire cast through vocal performance.
The success of those audio editions has made the voices an important part of how a significant portion of the audience experiences Dinniman’s world. That created an interesting question once the television adaptation began moving forward: would any element of the established audio performances survive the transition?
For Princess Donut, the answer is yes.
Peacock Is Keeping Donut’s Established Voice
Hays’ casting was revealed during the “Spotlight on Matt Dinniman” panel at SDCC on July 23. He appeared as a surprise guest alongside Dinniman and Yost as the announcement confirmed that he would continue voicing Princess Donut for television.
The decision wasn’t simply a gesture toward audiobook listeners. Dinniman has made clear in post-Comic-Con interviews that Hays had become inseparable from the way he hears the character.
That makes Donut a particularly interesting case for adaptation. Peacock’s Dungeon Crawler Carl is being developed as a live-action series, which means many of the characters will inevitably be reinterpreted for a visual medium. Donut, however, can retain a major element of her existing identity even as everything around the performance changes.
Hays won’t be narrating the television series in the same way he narrates the audiobooks. Instead, one character from his much larger repertoire is being separated from the ensemble and carried into the screen adaptation.
That distinction matters. In an audiobook, Hays controls the voices surrounding Donut as well as much of the rhythm of the scene. Television introduces other actors, editing, visual effects, direction and physical performances that will determine that rhythm for him. His Donut will need to function within that collaborative environment while remaining recognizable to listeners who already know the voice.
The production is still early enough that many of those details remain unknown. Peacock has not announced the actor who will play Carl or a complete cast, and no premiere date has been set. What is already established is that when Donut speaks, longtime audiobook listeners won’t have to adjust to someone new.
Television Gives Hays a Different Acting Challenge
Hays has been candid about the fact that keeping the role doesn’t mean simply repeating what he has already done.
During interviews conducted around Comic-Con and published in August, he described joining the television adaptation as potentially a major change in his life. More importantly from a performance perspective, he sees it as a new acting challenge that will require him to raise his game.
The difference begins with the medium itself. Audiobook performance gives Hays unusual control over the listener’s experience. He can establish the pace of a conversation, distinguish everyone participating in it and use narration to help construct an environment that the audience cannot see.
A live-action television production removes many of those responsibilities while adding others. Donut’s physical behavior will be created visually, while Hays’ performance will have to work with whatever timing, movement and interaction the production establishes around the character.
It also means concentrating on Donut in a way that differs from recording an entire Dungeon Crawler Carl audiobook. During an audiobook session, Hays may move between Carl, Donut and numerous supporting characters. For television, Donut becomes his specific responsibility.
That shift could allow for different kinds of performance detail. Instead of distinguishing Donut partly through contrast with the many other voices he performs, Hays will be working alongside actors whose performances are completely outside his control. Maintaining the personality listeners recognize while responding naturally to that new environment becomes part of the challenge.
Dinniman has also emphasized that the adaptation needs to preserve the unusual tonal balance that makes the books work. Dungeon Crawler Carl contains extreme situations and deliberately ridiculous comedy, but the story isn’t intended to become pure slapstick. The characters and emotional consequences beneath the spectacle remain important.
Donut is central to maintaining that balance. Her personality can produce some of the series’ biggest comedic moments, but her relationship with Carl also carries much of its emotional weight. Keeping the performer who has already spent years navigating those shifts gives the television production a direct connection to the tone established in audio.
Dungeon Crawler Carl’s Audiobooks Became Part of the Franchise
The decision to retain Hays becomes even more understandable when considering how important audio has been to Dungeon Crawler Carl.
Dinniman originally began the series as a self-published LitRPG story, but it has expanded far beyond those beginnings. The books have become bestsellers, while the audiobook editions have developed a substantial audience of their own. Peacock says the series has sold more than 14 million copies across formats, while Hays’ audio performances have accumulated more than 140 million listening hours on Audible.
That scale makes the audiobook version more than a secondary edition of an existing publishing property. For many fans, Hays’ performance is their version of Dungeon Crawler Carl.
The franchise’s presence at SDCC reflected that relationship. Hays and Dinniman participated in programming devoted specifically to the audio side of the series, including the “Goddamnit, Donut: A Totally Professional Panel” event. Hays also performed the first public reading from the upcoming ninth book during Comic-Con weekend.
Meanwhile, the television adaptation continues to develop at Peacock. The project comes from Universal International Studios and Seth MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door, with Yost writing and executive producing. Dinniman is involved as an executive producer, while Fuzzy Door’s Erica Huggins is also among the executive producers.
There is still plenty Peacock hasn’t revealed about how Dinniman’s unusual world will translate to live action. Carl remains uncast publicly, the wider ensemble hasn’t been announced and the visual realization of characters such as Donut will present its own challenge.
One important piece, however, is already settled.
Jeff Hays spent years creating voices for an entire dungeon full of characters. As Dungeon Crawler Carl moves into television, he won’t be bringing all of them with him. But the voice of Princess Donut, one of the performances most closely associated with the audiobook phenomenon, is making the jump intact.
For an adaptation of a franchise whose audio version became a phenomenon in its own right, that continuity makes Hays’ casting considerably more significant than a familiar voice returning for a cameo. It allows one of the performances that helped audiences fall in love with Dungeon Crawler Carl to become part of its next incarnation.