This is a new one on me: fans demanding that their favorite character NOT appear in more movies. CNN has a report on a fan group that wants to see The Joker retired from any future film appearances. This originated at fan site The Ultimate Joker. The story makes me ask a few questions:
1) Just over 2,400 signatures, and you get a CNN write-up?
2) While I don’t believe that we’ll see The Joker again in the present run of Nolan-Bale films, does anyone really think that The Joker would ever be permanently off the table? We’ve already had three in movie theaters (counting Romero) and roughly half-a-dozen in animation.
3) Ledger was indeed great, but this is a really strange strain of fan devotion, the notion that no one (NO ONE) could ever play a character well but one person. Sure, we associate certain characters with one actor, but pop culture is loaded with characters that have had multiple successful interpretations. Consider James Bond (Connery, Moore, Brosnan, and Craig; Lazenby only got one chance, and Dalton was eh) or Dracula (Lugosi, Lee, Langella, Oldman) and so on. I’m sure that a lot of us had a hard time picturing Ledger after Jack, but he took it to a new place. Trying to prematurely deny any other actor a chance says something sadly negative about the flexible imagination of some fans.
February 12th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
At least CNN isn’t playing up the horribly researched ‘holy lesbian’ angle other sites are. Although, they are scraping the barrel with this one, too…
With the Joker left alive at the end of TDK, I just assumed wed see him back as a Hannibal Lector type role that would bring Arkham into the mix in the next movie.
February 12th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
I think they should get Johnny Depp to play it in the third film with a cameo in Arkham, he would be fantastic.
February 12th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
“CNN has a report on a fan group that wants to see The Joker retired from any future film appearances.”
If Mistah J doesn’t appear in any other Bale/Nolan movies, it had better NOT be because of these dorks.
I’m starting a petition of my own: no appearances in Bale/Nolan movies of TweedleDee and Tweedledum. There! Put ME on CNN, biznatches!
February 12th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
I loved Heath Ledger’s Joker, and although i think somebody like Johnny Depp could take up the mantle (huh, kind of ironic) i kind of agree that the Joker should be left out of the other movies. If for nothing else, the Joker would overshadow anybody else, and the Bat-universe is full of really interesting sociopaths.
However, if they mean the Joker shouldn’t show up anymore in perpetuity throughout the universe, that’s where they lose me.
February 12th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
I LOL’d when I read this. Fangirls can be so stupid.
February 12th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
I think they should hold off on Joker appearances for a while (but certainly not forever!), not because Heath Ledger died, but because the character works best when used sparingly. Especially when we’re looking at one installment every 2-3 years, I’d much rather see them explore different villains in each installment rather than come back time and time again to Batman vs. the Joker: Round 23.
February 12th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Not that I am saying there should be a new Joker in the next one, but if everyone was so willing to accept a new female lead between the first 2 films, it shouldn’t be a problem for a new Joker to play out.
Then again, it might’ve been easy because Katie Holmes is annoying.
February 13th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
I agree completely. I do not think we should EVER show the joker again. This includes Jack Nicolson and Mark Hamill’s depictions. I think they should reinsert Heath Ledger into those two actor’s respective performances, using digital movie magic. In fact, I don’t think we should even portray the Joker in comics.
Also Muhammed should not be depicted in any way shape or form!
February 16th, 2009 at 3:31 am
For your consideration…
The Joker Blogs.
http://www.youtube.com/thejokerblogs
February 21st, 2009 at 4:11 pm
give me a break he was good but not that good Jack Nicolson was much better
February 22nd, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Give me a break about retiring the joker.why? because Heath is dead, I’m not bashing him but if he was alive how much would this movie have effected everybody. Yes he was good but come on already, it’s a character thats been around for years and will always be around because the character is owned by DC COMICS is it not, and Johnny Depp should NOT play the joker he should play the riddler.
February 28th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Are U NUTZ??? The last and final Movie is still to come.
The Origin of the Joker a.k.a. “The Man Who Laughs”.
In the Origin of the “The Man Who Laughs,” the joker is a young lad and a pathetic victim instead
of his usual role as a villain. In this moving melodrama he had a dual role, starring as both
Gwynplaine (The Man Who Laughs), and also as Lord Clancharlie, Gwynplaine’s father, a Scottish
nobleman who has rebelled against King James II in 17th-century Britain. As Lord Clancharlie is
being placed for execution in the notorious “Iron Maiden,” he asks what will be done with his son,
Gwynplaine. King James’ cruel jester pulls the boys mouth apart in a grimace, and the king
understands that the young boy with a beaming, angelic smile will be given to a notorious band of
nomads, the Comprachicos.
The Comprachicos purposely disfigure the young boy by carving the corners of his mouth into a
fixed, hideous grin. As if what they have done turns into a bad Omen, the Comprachicos are exiled
from England, abandoning Gwynplaine in the English countryside during a severe snowstorm burning
his facial expression into a permanent one.
Plodding through the storm, the youngster comes across a baby girl in the arms of her frozen and
lifeless mother. Although the boy doesn’t have any reason to perpetuate acts of kindness due to
his practically shattered spirit, his heart goes out to this young child, and he rescues her. As
he plods through the howling storm with the baby in tow, they are saved by a small traveling
troupe of actors who are led by kindly philosopher, Ursus. Ursus is horrified when he sees
Gwynplaine’s disfigured face, and he realizes that the baby girl, Dea, is blind.
They are both adopted by the troupe, and years later Dea, has grown into a beautiful blind girl.
A romance of the heart, not of the eyes, develops between Gwyplaine and Dea. Gwynplaine, who has
now become a famous performing clown, is finally happy, and fate steps in when Gwynplaine discovers
he is heir to a peerage and is summoned back to London.
It is there that his life will take a fateful turn when the jester who had persuaded the king to
disfigure Gwynplaine and the queen, see an opportunity to continue their mind-twisted torture.
MAYBE THEN ALL WILL UNDERSTAND WHY JOKER LOST IT.
March 1st, 2009 at 10:51 am
How about just retiring Joker from the comics? No, I know that won’t happen, but I wouldn’t mind. The last two Joker appearances I’ve read in the comics, both differnt story arcs in the pages of Batman Confidential, have been dreadful. I only have myself to blame for reading them, but still.
One was yet another retelling of Joker’s origin, and it was terrible a story as it was irrelevant (didn’t help that I hated Denys Cowan’s chicken-scratch art). The second, was an insipid tale that had Joker doing a bunch of ludicrous things (anyone want to explain to me how he got through the fence in the paddy wagon? Teleportation? And the peanut thing… Stupid) and world’s greatest detective Batman somehow falling for the deranged cop’s trap. A trap he should’ve seen a mile away. Just awful. Two incredibly crappy Joker stories in the same title in less than two years.
So anyhow, after Heath Ledger’s incredible performance in TDK and the very similar take on Joker in the (excellent) Joker OGN, I feel like the definitive Joker’s been done. These other takes just don’t work for me anymore, and the character’s simply been overdone. Give him a good long rest already.