Warner Bros was "worried" about Heath Ledger's Joker not having backstory in 'Dark Knight'

Late Hollywood actor Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008) is considered as one of the best depictions of the DC Comic character. Although the villain had many shades in the film, his origin story was not shown to the audiences. Now one of the writers of the movie revealed that there was tension among production and distribution studio, Warner Bros. Pictures, for not displaying the Joker’s origin story.

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The Joker not having an origin story in The Dark Knight was worrying

In a recent interview during Comic-Con at Home, David S. Goyer, who co-wrote The Dark Knight with Christopher Nolan, talked about the concern Warner Bros. had on Heath Ledger’s back story as the Joker. He recalled the time when they were talking about, ‘Well, what if the Joker does not really have an origin story?’ The writer mentioned that even after the success of Batman Begins (2005), their idea was considered a “very controversial thing,” and they got a lot of pushback. Goyer noted that people were worried at the time.

Heath Ledger's Joker was introduced in The Dark Knight without having a backstory on how he became the villain. The clown prince of crime narrates different versions of his root story. One hinted that he suffered from domestic violence, while another suggested that he faced parental abuse. However, the changing narratives depicted the unreliability of the Joker.

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Back in 2012, Christopher Nolan opened up about Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight, in an interview with a magazine. He said that Ledger’s interpretation of the Batman nemesis has always been the “absolute extreme” of anarchy and chaos, effectively. He is pure evil through pure anarchy.

The filmmaker also stated that what makes the character terrifying is to not humanize him in narrative terms. Nolan mentioned that Heath Ledger found “all kinds of fantastic ways” to humanise the Joker in terms of simply being real and being a real person. He noted that they did not want to humanize him in narrative terms, they did not want to show his origins, show what made him do the things he is doing because then he becomes less threatening.

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Sadly, Heath Ledger could not see his performance and the love that it earned from the audiences. On January 22, 2008, the actor passed away due to accidental overdoes, at the age of 28. It was months before The Dark Knight was released and received critical as well as commercial success. Ledger was posthumously awarded Best Supporting Actor at the 81st Academy Award for his performance as 'The Joker'.