One of the greatest Disney animated villains of all time is returning in the near future, according to the star behind his voice. Over the years, Disney fans have been spoiled by the wealth of incredible villains in animated classics, from Jeremy Irons’ Scar to Pat Carroll’s Ursula, and Richard White’s Gaston, and many others. The truly impressive thing is that the House of Mouse has given a platform to major stars – like Keith David for The Princess & The Frog‘s Dr. Facilier – and less familiar names like Jonathan Freeman, who played Jafar so chillingly in Aladdin. Managing to get just as great performances out of the former group as professional voice-over actors is only made more impressive when you watch other, more modern animated movies that bring in star talent and end up with lifeless characters who sound famous.
One of Disney’s masterstrokes was hiring James Woods to play Hades in Hercules. The actor drenched the god of the underworld in sarcasm and spite, much like Jafar and Scar, in fact, and played him as a wisecracking malevolence manifest, stealing almost every scene to a level only Robin Williams had managed as the Genie before him. Woods has just dropped an intriguing tease on X to confirm he recently did some more recording work as Hades, noting how much he still loves the character. In response to a trivia post about him returning in “nearly every project” Hades appeared in, Woods clarified, “
Not “nearly,” but absolutely every time Hades appears in any iteration, I do his voice. I was in the studio just a few weeks ago in fact. I love this character, and the creative team at Disney never fail to do top notch work.”
Not “nearly,” but absolutely every time Hades appears in any iteration, I do his voice. I was in the studio just a few weeks ago in fact. I love this character, and the creative team at Disney never fail to do top notch work. https://t.co/jUFwFBIh8y
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) May 17, 2026
What Disney Project Could Hades Return in?
Most impressively for Woods’ Hades, he also managed to stand head-and-shoulders over the rest of the voice cast, which is no mean feat when you have Danny DeVito, Susan Egan, Rip Torn, and the often overlooked Tate Donovan to contend with. In the end, it wasn’t all that close. Which is why Woods’ continued association with the character in other media releases is a bonus for Disney fans. Too often, games and even TV spinoffs recast major stars with soundalikes (even Tom Hanks brings in his brother Jim to help as Woody), but as Woods says, if Hades is involved, so is he. So what’s the secret project he could be talking about here?
Fans in the X thread were quick to ask about Kingdom Hearts IV, which has been in the works for a little more than 4 years. Woods has previously played Hades in all of the Kingdom Hearts games, as well as in several other video games, the Hercules TV spinoff, the little-seen direct-to-video Hercules prequel Zero to Hero, and 2023’s Disney short Once Upon a Studio among other things. In fact, including game re-releases, he’s played Hades 18 times. If the 19th is Kingdom Hearts IV, that would obviously be great, but it would also be great to see the iconic villain return for an animated project. Whether he’ll get the call for the live-action Hercules remake remains to be seen – and a little less likely – but it will surely be a test for his usual rule of always playing the character.
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