Prequel Story Explains What Happened to Heath Ledger’s Joker During ‘The Dark Knight Rises’

Released in 2008, The Dark Knight is still considered to be the best superhero movie of all time. Combining Christopher Nolan’s majestic direction with a brilliant cast and phenomenal story, The Dark Knight has endured the test of time, showing that comic book movies can be relevant and important for the real world despite their often fantastical setting.

And while there are numerous aspects we could analyze in relation to this movie, Heath Ledger’s Joker is most often at the center of these discussions, and for a good reason. The character was portrayed amazingly, and while it resulted in a tragedy for Ledger, it also earned him a posthumous Oscar for the role, which says it all.

For many, the best Joker ever, the character was notoriously absent from the 2012 sequel, The Dark Knight Rises, which made sense, seeing how Ledger was dead, but the character wasn’t even mentioned. Now, a novel finally reveals what happened to the character.

We know that the Joker survived the events of The Dark Knight and that he was taken to Arkham. Narratively, he probably wouldn’t have played a major role in The Dark Knight Rises regardless of Ledger’s private life.

But after the actor died, it was impossible to bring back the character in a proper way without disrespecting the actor’s legacy, which is something no one wanted to do. Back in 2012, Nolan said the following about the Joker:

We’re not addressing the Joker at all. That is something I felt very strongly about in terms of my relationship with Heath and the experience I went through with him on The Dark Knight. I didn’t want to in any way try and account for a real-life tragedy. That seemed inappropriate to me. We just have a new set of characters and a continuation of Bruce Wayne’s story, not involving the Joker.

Source: Digital Spy

And it happened like that. The story moved on to Bane and Talia as villains, and the Joker wasn’t even mentioned. But, despite the fact that Nolan made the best possible call and that the only way to respect Ledger was to keep his legacy intact, fans still wanted to know what happened to the character, and thanks to the official novelization of The Dark Knight Rises, we can now confirm the Joker’s fate. Sort of.

We know that the Dent Act was passed after the tragic events of The Dark Knight and the new bill made pleading insanity almost impossible. In that aspect, Arkham Asylum was closed down and the inmates were sent to Blackgate, since there were no criminally insane inmates anymore. Except one – the Joker.

Yes, Ledger’s character remained as the only inmate in the now-closed Arkham, and from that moment on, his fate is unknown. He could have died there, escaped, or, what is most likely, still remains there, as it makes the most sense. So, if you wanted to know what happened to him, now you can be at ease.

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