Het is acteur Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain) die de rol van The Joker op zich zal nemen in Christopher Nolans The Dark Knight, de opvolger van het uitermate succesvolle Batman Begins die in 2008 zal verschijnen. De Australiër liet in een gesprek met The Toronto Star iets los over de uitdaging.
"I wouldn't have thought of me, either. But it's obviously not going to be what Jack Nicholson did. It's going to be more nuanced and dark and more along the lines of a Clockwork Orange kind of feel. Which is, I think, what the comic book was after: less about his laugh and more about his eyes."