Banning The Joker
 

LONDON, England (CNN) -- A group of Heath Ledger fans have taken their reverence for the late "The Dark Knight" star to a whole new level.
Heath Ledger fans at Web site, The Ultimate Joker, launched a petition calling for studios to remove The Joker from future Batman movies.

Heath Ledger fans launched a petition calling for studios to remove the Joker from future Batman movies.

Followers of the actor, who electrified audiences with his chilling reinvention of the Joker in the second Batman blockbuster, are calling for the character to be retired from the movies permanently.

Ledger supporters at new Web site, The Ultimate Joker, launched a petition last week calling for studios to remove the Joker from any future Batman movies. The petition currently has 2,431 supporters.

"We think Heath deserves this honor," the site's team leader, Fer Barbella, told CNN from Buenos Aires, Argentina. "He is the ultimate Joker."

"We are Batman fans from the comics and from the movies," he said, "After we saw 'The Dark Knight,' we thought this Joker was really the best. It deserves to be withdrawn from any Batman sequels.

"When Michael Jordan retired, they withdrew the number 23 jersey as an honor. It's the same thing with Heath."

Barbella said he thinks any new performance just won't be able to top Ledger's. "He upgraded the character in a thrilling way," he said. "Although a lot of actors would love the chance to play the Joker, as Batman fans and now Heath Ledger fans, we think no one could ever perform it as well as he did."

The Web site is the brainchild of Barbella, 34; Nico Pimentel, 33; and Natalia Rodoni, 33, all advertising creatives in Buenos Aires.

The trio say that if they collect enough names, they may go to the studio to present their petition.

"As soon as we start seeing that we have more than 50,000 names on our Web site, perhaps we will go to the Warner Brothers gate and do a bit of activism," Pimentel said.

The huge buzz around Ledger's performance as the Joker last year stemmed from his update of the iconic character played by camp comedian Cesar Romero and as a hateful clown by Jack Nicholson.

Ledger's Joker was a very different proposition from those that had come before: In a ripped, stained suit, with clown makeup smeared across a scarred, twisted mouth, his Joker was a nihilistic, sociopathic prankster. "Why so serious?" he sneered in a performance that received rave reviews from critics globally. Do you agree that Heath Ledger's Joker should be the last one ever?

The actor was found dead after overdosing on prescription drugs at his apartment in New York on January 22, 2008, shortly after concluding work on "The Dark Knight."

Ledger has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the Joker, having been awarded a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor.

Barbella says that the Web site and petition are their award: "The Academy gives an Oscar," he said. "This is a new award from the people. A user-generated award."

......I really really hate these people.

.... This is just insane. Yes, Ledger did an excellent job as the Joker... but seeing as he was set in Nolan's world... he was a little too 'real'. Where's the acid bath-induced bleached skin? The killer laughing gas? The acid-spewing flower? The razor-sharp playing cards? Hell, the insane laughter? Ledger hardly pulled a LOL. I mean maybe later down the line we'll see a Joker that can pull off 'serious' and 'real' as well as the gags that made the Joker famous.

So, uh...miss the point?

These people are retarded. Joker wasn't Heath Ledger, Heath Ledger was Joker. If that makes sense.

Every subsequent live action version of The Joker is considered the definitive version. As cool as Ledger's was, there will be a better one.

Personally, I prefer Nicholson's Joker to Ledger's. If he doesn't laugh lots and kill you with Joker Venom, he's not Joker to me! ;)

Naturally, I like Hamill's Joker in the DCAU better than both of the live-action versions.

I always hated Nicholson's Joker even before "Dark Knight" was conceived. What he does in the movie hardly dictates his acting ability. Ledger didn't write the script he played the part. If he shot acid at people it wouldn't fit in this movie. I had some stoner tell me he didn't like Ledger because Nicholson's Joker pulls a giant gun out of his pants and Ledger didn't do that. It's all opinion when it boils down to it and that's my two cents. Like Wes said Mark Hamil is my Joker but he's way to old and doesn't look the part to be playing him.

This is just stupid. The producers and director know Ledger was great in the role. If they can't find a good replacement they won't recast them. I trust Nolan that much.

They want the Joker gone from ALL future Batman movies.

Wow....I thought I was alone. Mark Hamil's my Joker as well...especially in the Batman Beyond movie. Man he's bad-a.

As for a Joker embargo, that's just asinine. Would that expand to any new series or even the comics? I mean why not claim Heath was the best Joker in ALL MEDIA!! :roll:

like this'll ever happen...

IMO, the best damn joker...well, voice, is Mark Hamill...I hear him as the Joker before anyone else. I thought it was cool he voiced Joker on Robot Chicken too :D Can't ever mistake that voice

The idea of stopping the continued use of a beloved (or behated?) character like the Joker is laughable. That's like saying Superman can't be used anymore cuz of Christopher Reeve... Or Ertha Kitt for Catwoman...

It's just ONE version out of many of the Character of the Joker. You can never say, "Okay, THIS is the ONLY Joker allowed." It's not going to allow for any growth. If we'd done that after Nicholson (my personal fave), we Never would have gotten Ledger's in the first place...

I was under the impression they just wanted him removed from the current series. If they did future Batman films featuring a different production team and lead role then I could totally see them bringing in another Joker. That however I see being several years down the line. If their request is to get him taken out forever from movies then they're just raving fanatics.

Heath was amazing and I love his version of the Joker but, I also love the character of the joker in general so I really hope to keep seeing him.

I love Mark Hamil's for Joker's voice in the animated stuff, he's perfect

I was just about to say that. ^_^
While that actually is what they said, I think they are being misinterpreted as to what their goal is. If they wanted to get Joker removed from all future Batman media, why bring the petition to the movie studio? They'd want to bring it direct to DC. I think, reasonably, they just don't want any cheap imitations in sequels. In the Burton-directed/inspired movies, villains were used once and never heard from again. In Nolan's, they did have a cameo for Scarecrow in Dark Knight, and it appears that they didn't kill off the Joker because they have plans to use him in future sequels, so I think they're right to worry. Hell, they even recast Rachel...

Agreed with the above two points.

I loved Heath Ledger's performance dearly, but this is just plain stupid. If anyone wants to bar off the Joker from any future features in the movie cinemas, that's all about personal opinion. But let's face it - you can't compare all the roles of the Joker. At all.

Ledger WAS the Joker in that movie, no denying that. But he will never be the last person to act as him. He's left behind a spectacular performance that we can all enjoy and be extremely entertained by, and played a role that he loved dearly. The whole idea of a "Joker Ban" is just plain silly, since it just defeats the whole purpose to bring in new takes on the character.

Besides, do we want to see Batman fighting this monstrosity in the next movie revamp because they couldn't get Joker back in?

I didn't think so.

Hell, I wouldn't be opposed to them recasting Joker in the next movie if the original plan was for Joker to return.

I liked Two-Face more anyway.

I think it's ridiculous to ban the Joker from all Batman media... but here's my take on this. While Heath isn't the end all be all, I agree with someone who told me his view on the subject.... the Joker should remain an unseen menace, while Batman tackles another villain entirely. That is if there's a Batman Begins 3. We shouldn't retire the character completely, but not recast him out of respect- sort of like what they did in the Pink Panther movies after Peter Sellers died halfway through his last one. The Joker would still be there, still be a menace... referenced... but not technically in the movie.

of course, that's ONLY if they continue the Batman begins franchise. I'm honestly worried more about the director not coming back. Again, he's not the end all be all, but would we really want to see someone trying to emulate the same directing style without catching the subtleties? Would we really want a repeat of Batman Forever and Batman and Robin? Honestly, if they can't get the director, we should put batman on the back burner and reboot it, and not try to make sequals that won't hold up.

I think this is ridiculous. They shouldn't ban Joker from future media. They should take all past media and burn that, too. I mean, let's face it, Heath Ledger is the closest we'll ever get to the Second Coming, and we don't need false idols clouding his miracle. I mean work. Work.

Do they mean remove him from all future media? That's ridiculous and would never happen, of course.

And I get the feeling these people have never read a Batman comic in their life. Heath Ledger wasn't the best Joker. In fact, his character was a pretty radical depature from previous versions. The Joker is usually, what's the word, more "suave"? His version was good, but it wasn't definitive. Mark Hamill still played it closer to the comics.

If they mean keep him out of future Batman Begins sequels, I sort of agree, but don't feel too strongly on the subject.

:roll: I highly doubt that will ever happen removing Joker from all media. He has been around before those fans were even born! The Joker is one of the greatest comic book villians, yes , but there is Joker fans who enjoy all the incarnations of the character like me for example.

Nicholson's Joker sucked. Ledger was amazing as the Joker, and while I like to think of that movie as perfection, someday somebody else will try. Maybe it will be better. Maybe it won't. Who knows. Either way, these douchebags aren't going to change anything with their silly little petition, so let's laugh at their closed mindedness and move on.

And regardless of how we look at this, it doesn't change the fact that Mark Hamill kicks all of their asses combined.

Ahem, I think you mean Michelle Pfeiffer :P

I agree with that idea, but we're getting at most one more movie out of this series, and even that's not certain at this point. If Nolan wants out, then I'm getting out. Remember the words of Robot Chicken..."This smells like Batman Forever".

I can see it now. Christopher Nolan decided he would rather work on something else, so Warner Bros goes out and hires Michael Bay to do a Batman movie. We then all proceed to hang ourselves. :lol:

Not so far fetched you know.

Since FDR was such a good president, I say we knock that **** off too.

Any real comic fan knows that the Joker has a severely fragmented personality and is constantly reinventing his persona. Sometimes he's a cold-blooded killer, others a clown, and so on. So he has no "true" persona and no one portrayal could ever be 100% accurate.

That said, and with all respect to Hammil and Nicholson, Heath Ledger's interpretation of the Joker is the one I want to see. Not the actor, keep in mind, but the presentation. I don't care for gimmicky villains in my super-hero movies. Movies are the one time when comic material is taken even a little bit seriously as the art that it is, and no matter what works on the comic page, acid-spewing flowers and giant prop guns just dilute it and "prove" that anything related to a comic is "kids stuff".

My Joker was always the one who shot and crippled Barbara Gordon in front of Jim, in their house, with no warning, then stripped her, photographed her, and made Jim watch in an attempt to drive him mad. And for an encore, after escaping from Arkham he beat 15-year old Jason/Robin half-dead with a crowbar in front of his mother, then blew them both to hell in a warehouse explosion. To me, these were the defining moments in the Joker's history. Not the gimmicks, or the gags, but that pure, unflinching evil.

Nicholson's Joker and Hammil's Joker just never seemed capable to me of going that dark. Both of them were about 1/2 to 3/4 there, but in the end just ended up too goofy (which in the case of the cartoon can be forgiven). Ledger's portrayal was about as close to that kind of madness as I could have imagined. He was the best, even without the comic book origin story.

But irreplaceable? Hardly. Now that Ledger did the hard work, any number of actors could take the part up where he left off and maybe even do it better.

I hope so. Because Gordon clearly has a daughter in these movies and if the Joker doesn't someday cripple her in a sequel I'll be very upset. What's Crispin Glover doing these days? :P

Unless there's some joke there that flew over my head, I don't get why she would mean that....

I too would like to see Ledger's manic portrayal of the Joker live on, but I don't think you'll get it with the Batman Begins series. No actor would be suicidal enough to step into that role within the next ten years.

I think what flew over your head was the fact that I'm saying Pfeiffer makes Kitt look like a cheerleader, but that's a whole different fight entirely.

Exactly... not the end all be all, but I want to see him continue his vision, and not someone else trying to copy his vision and failing miserably.

Though, I still say, as far as the Joker goes, don't have him in the next film, and focus on one or 2 other villains who pose a bigger threat while the Joker is still at large.

banning Joker from TV? yeeah right....

I really couldn't care less if Nolan continues with the movies or not.

"number 23 jersey"

Kareem Jabbar supposedly used 32 as respect to his friend Bruce Lee.....

"banning Joker from TV? yeeah right"

I know you don't like W Bush but to call him a joker....isn't that a bit much ;)

Joker isn't that tough...let's see him in the ring with Undertaker and we'll see his laugh being put permanently to sleep & Joker crying like a toddler....lmao ;)

Fanboys : "Joker should NEVER return !"

*Joker bursts thru a door and shoots every fanboy in sight*

Joker : "Like hell I wouldn't return huh ?" *laughs manically*

That'd be a fun scene lol ;)

I think he was... joking... :|

Hard to tell...

I think Ledger's Joker was the best on-screen interpretation yet, but this is taking that praise way too far. It's closed minded to think that there can't be another actor to play a great Joker later. The Joker character has been around since the 1940's. The character is as timeless as Batman himself, suggesting that he be "retired" is stupid.

I think Christopher Reeve's Superman was just as good as Ledger's Joker, but I don't hear anyone making a big deal about Superman possibly being recast in the future. For better or worse, the characters should be given a chance to continue on.

Can I just say that long, long ago when the thread title first came up, I thought it was some B.S. from some parental group or something?