Executioner image.
He is the royal Executioner of the King and Queen of Hearts. The Queen of Hearts ordered the Cheshire Cat to be decapitated, but the Executioner argued that he couldn't because the Cat lacked a body to decapitate. This led to an argument between the Queen, the King and the Executioner about whether or not a disembodied head could be decapitated. The Executioner then argued that the Cat belonged to the Duchess, so he couldn't behead it without her permission. He is most commonly depicted as a playing card (similar to the Card painters) and his suit is clubs, though he has also been a spade, a heart and, in American McGee's Alice, a joker.
In Sir John Tenniel's illustrations, the executioner is the Knave, or Jack of Clubs. By contrast, in Arthur Rackham's illustration like the one seen in this article, he is the Ace of Clubs.
In the 1951 film several of the Card Soldiers in the Queen's court are executioners. They are all spades, rather than clubs, and carry axes. As are all of the Card Soldiers they are voiced by Don Barclay and Larry Grey.
In the 1972 film the executioner is the Knave of Clubs, and wears a mask, carrying an axe.
In Tim Burton's 2010 film the executioner is an assassin working for the Red Queen, rather than the Queen of Hearts. He made a brief appearance in the, where he was assigned to behead the Mad Hatter. Before executing him, the Executioner wanted to remove his hat, but when the Hatter insisted that he wanted to keep it on, he agreed when as long as he could get at his neck. When he hit his axe, it hit the ground instead of the neck of the Mad Hatter, as it was the Cheshire Cat in disguise as the Hatter. As the Cheshire Cat floats away with Hatter's hat, the Executioner looks as shocked as other inhabitants of the Red Queen's court. Soon after that, the Red Queen ordered for her courtiers to be executed. Whether the Executioner actually ended their lives or not is unknown. In the film, the Executioner uses a heart shaped axe, hinting his suit is hearts. The Executioner was played by the English actor Jim Carter. The executioner is the only humanoid character, in the film, to be completely CGI and he speaks only on line in the entire film. He wears a long grey cloak and a hood that covers his face.
The Executioner appears as an enemy in the video-game Alice: Madness Returns. He stays in the Queens castle and is completely invulnerable to any of Alice's attacks. He has the appearance of an extremely large humanoid made of several different Card Guard parts, each piece of his sewn-together body showing a symbol of a certain suit of a card deck. The top of his head is masked by a large horned hat, and several of the Queen's tentacles are wrapped around the top of his body, even going through his eye sockets. On his is head is what looks like a jester's hat and all Card colors may imply that Executioner is a Joker Card (hence its special abilities), but it is not confirmed.
| Characters | ||
|---|---|---|
| Main Characters | Alice's Adventures in Wonderland | Alice - White Rabbit - Mouse - Dodo - Duck - The Lory - Eaglet - Pat - Bill - Puppy - The Caterpillar - Duchess - Cheshire Cat - March Hare - The Hatter - Dormouse - Queen of Hearts - King of Queens - Knave of Hearts - Gryphon - Mock Turtle |
| Through the Looking-Glass | Alice - Red Queen - White Queen - Red King - White King - White Knight - Tweedledum and Tweedledee - The Sheep - Humpty Dumpty - Haigha - Hatta - The Lion and the Unicorn - Bandersnatch - Jubjub bird | |
| Minor Characters | Alice's Adventures in Wonderland | Alice's sister - Dinah - The Duchess' Cook - Executioner - Fish Footman - Frog Frootman - Pig Baby - The Playing Cards |
| Through the Looking-Glass | Snowdrop - Kitty - Red Knight - Live Flowers - Aged Man - Rocking Horse Fly - Bread and Butterfly - Snap-Dragonfly - The White Horse | |