“Heath Ledger as Joker is one of the worst casts ever.” Christopher Nolan was totally alone when he signed the actor for ‘The Dark Knight’

These days the 15th anniversary of the premiere of ‘The Dark Knight’ in the United States has been celebrated. The film directed by Christopher Nolan it achieved overwhelming success and many place it as the best superhero film show of all time. However, things were not so clear before, especially when it became known that the author of ‘Oppenheimer’ had chosen Heath Ledger to give life to Joker.

When that information surfaced online, the reaction from many Batman fans was furious, both because they believed other actors were right for the role – there was a lot of talk about Crispin Gloverbut paul bettany he was also the favorite of many – as for his contempt for Ledger. Not a few were those who joked about his participation in ‘Brokeback Mountain’, to the point that someone contemptuously stated that “I’ll be waiting for him to have sex with Batman“.

Everyone told him “We don’t see it”

Obviously, there were also positive reactions, but in this type of situation it always happens that the negative eats everything else, but there were not a few who proclaimed as “one of the worst casting choices ever“. The curious thing is that the doubts went far beyond the followers, because the very Jonathan Nolanfilm writer, he confessed years later that neither he himself nor the studio understood why his brother Christopher had signed Ledger. In fact, he commented the following to The Hollywood Reporter:

The Joker character was a big challenge for us. Chris had a good meeting with Heath Ledger but no one got it. I didn’t get it and neither did the studio. Everyone told him “We don’t see it” and the movie community put us in the pillory for it. It was a disaster, it was the worst casting choice ever. But Chris stood his ground and kept going. The plan was not to give the fans what they asked for, but what they wanted, what they really wanted.

The appearance of the first image of Ledger as Joker caused some bewilderment. Many were not very clear what to think, but everything began to become clear with next look to his version of the character and any doubt was cleared when it was released the first trailer of ‘The Dark Knight’ at the end of 2017.

Unfortunately, Ledger passed away in January 2018, so he didn’t get a chance to see his portrayal of Joker receive unanimous applause and was rewarded with an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. And, as we all know, ‘The Dark Knight’ took theaters by storm, to the point that it still appears on the list of the highest grossing films of all time.

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