{"id":7251,"date":"2016-01-22T07:21:49","date_gmt":"2016-01-22T15:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/?p=7251"},"modified":"2016-02-24T12:14:28","modified_gmt":"2016-02-24T20:14:28","slug":"did-heath-ledgers-tragic-death-ruin-plans-for-the-joker-to-appear-in-the-dark-knight-rises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2016\/01\/22\/did-heath-ledgers-tragic-death-ruin-plans-for-the-joker-to-appear-in-the-dark-knight-rises\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Heath Ledger&#8217;s Tragic Death Ruin Plans for the Joker to Appear in The Dark Knight Rises?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><u><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">MOVIE URBAN LEGEND<\/span><\/u>: The Joker was going to appear in <i>The Dark Knight Rises<\/i> before Heath Ledger&#8217;s tragic death squelched those plans.<\/p>\n<p>Heath Ledger&#8217;s Academy Award-winning performance as the Joker in <i>The Dark Knight<\/i> highlights the fallacy of overreacting to casting news before the film debuts, as Ledger&#8217;s casting drew a lot of criticism that was soon reversed when the actual film came out. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/heathledgerjoker.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/heathledgerjoker-375x253.png\" alt=\"heathledgerjoker\" width=\"375\" height=\"253\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-7565\" srcset=\"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/heathledgerjoker-375x253.png 375w, https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/heathledgerjoker-515x348.png 515w, https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/heathledgerjoker.png 620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 375px) 100vw, 375px\" \/><\/a><iframe style=\"width:120px;height:240px;\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&#038;OneJS=1&#038;Operation=GetAdHtml&#038;MarketPlace=US&#038;source=ac&#038;ref=qf_sp_asin_til&#038;ad_type=product_link&#038;tracking_id=legenrevea-20&#038;marketplace=amazon&#038;region=US&#038;placement=B001OGWY1W&#038;asins=B001OGWY1W&#038;linkId=OX2XW3CYUUU65AUV&#038;show_border=true&#038;link_opens_in_new_window=true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Tragically, before the film was even released, Ledger passed away, leading to his Oscar win being a posthumous one. The character of the Joker died with Ledger, at least in the context of Christopher Nolan&#8217;s Bat-films. However, had Ledger not died, was Nolan planning on using the Joker in <i>The Dark Knight Rises<\/i>, his final Batman film? <\/p>\n<p>Read on to find out!<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nAs we have detailed many times over the years, rumors about would-be castings are quite common. Like <a href=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2015\/09\/25\/was-the-villain-max-schreck-in-batman-returns-originally-going-to-be-harvey-dent\/\">we noted in a recent Movie Legends Revealed<\/a>, there is still mystery over whether Christopher Walken&#8217;s character in Batman Returns was originally supposed to be Harvey Dent. Here, though, it would seem to be impossible <b>not<\/b> to spread rumors about the Joker&#8217;s possible future role in Batman films, as Christopher Nolan seemingly made a distinct point to keep the character alive at the end of <i>The Dark Knight<\/i>. <\/p>\n<p>However, there are two very important points to take into consideration when it comes to discussing Christopher Nolan&#8217;s plans for <i>The Dark Knight Rises<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>The first, and probably most important, point is that there was no script written for <i>The Dark Knight Rises<\/i> at the time of Ledger&#8217;s death. There is significant confusion about this point, because the screenwriter who came up with the story for both <i>The Dark Knight<\/i> and <i>The Dark Knight Rises<\/i> (as well as coming up with the story and co-writing the screenplay for <i>Batman Begins<\/i>), David Goyer, did, in fact, write two scripts for two separate Batman movies featuring the Joker that would have followed <i>Batman Begins<\/i>. In 2005, he wrote about this possible third movie<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;The next one [the third movie &#8211; BC] would have Batman enlisting the aid of Gordon&#8230;in bringing down the Joker\u2026but not killing him, which is a mistake they made in the first one<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This, then, is the major basis for the legend that the Joker was set to star in the third Batman film before Ledger&#8217;s untimely death. However, that is not accurate, because what ended up happening was that Nolan took Goyer&#8217;s plots for the <b>two<\/b> scripts and condensed them into a single story. For instance, Goyer was not going to have Harvey Deny turn into Two-Face until the third film, which would be Dent prosecuting the Joker in a sensational trial. Therefore, the &#8220;third&#8221; movie was really the second movie and thus, there was no script for a third Batman movie at the time of Ledger&#8217;s death.<\/p>\n<p>Secondly, at the time of the release of <i>The Dark Knight<\/i>, Christopher Nolan had not committed to doing a third film. In fact, that was a driving force in him condensing Goyer&#8217;s two film ideas, because he <b>didn&#8217;t<\/b> want the end to have loose ends. He wanted <i>The Dark Knight<\/i> to be able to serve as a final film if he ended there. Of course, the film was such a huge success that he pretty easily changed his mind, but even there, it was not until December 2008 that Nolan actually sat down and came up with a story outline for the third film. <\/p>\n<p>Do I think that the Joker would have appeared in Nolan&#8217;s final film had Ledger not died? Yes, I think that that is very likely. I just don&#8217;t believe that there was ever a specific plan to bring the character back that was &#8220;ruined&#8221; by Ledger&#8217;s sad, untimely death. <\/p>\n<p>Therefore, the legend is&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><u><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">STATUS<\/span><\/u>: False<\/p>\n<p>Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is &#x62;&#99;r&#x6f;&#x6e;in&#x40;&#x6c;eg&#x65;&#110;d&#x73;&#x72;&#101;v&#x65;&#x61;le&#x64;&#46;c&#x6f;&#x6d;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MOVIE URBAN LEGEND: The Joker was going to appear in The Dark Knight Rises before Heath Ledger&#8217;s tragic death squelched those plans. Heath Ledger&#8217;s Academy Award-winning performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight highlights the fallacy of overreacting to casting news before the film debuts, as Ledger&#8217;s casting drew a lot of criticism that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[11],"tags":[398,1748],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7MjBq-1SX","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7768,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2016\/07\/21\/did-batman-actually-kill-anyone-in-the-dark-knight-returns\/","url_meta":{"origin":7251,"position":0},"title":"Did Batman Actually Kill Anyone in The Dark Knight Returns?","date":"July 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about movies and whether they are true or false. 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