Last week, I was contacted by Fer, co-founder of a new site called The Ultimate Joker. The premise of The Ultimate Joker is that Heath was the Best Joker of all time, and they feel that Warner Brothers should not try to recast the role with another actor in any of the future films.

Fer answered email questions recently for Wired.com, and explained the concept behind their campaign. "We truly believe Ledger's performance as Joker is the best an actor could ever do. Any other performance will be below expectations for sure, so we want to forever keep Ledger's Joker as the one."

"Television and animation is off our radar," he says. "And we like Jokers like Cesar Romero or Jack Nicholson, and even the voice of Mark Hamill. But we think this psycho in scarred whiteface is the best ever. No one can improve it. So please, Hollywood, use other enemies in the sequels to come."

In HH's emails with Fer, I pointed out that if Nolan has extra Heath footage, I certainly would not want them to retire the Joker when they could put Heath in there, again. I just don't want them to re-cast it.

His response was this:
"You are totally right. The idea is that no other actor ever should perform the role of Joker in future sequels.
If Nolan has more footage of him we think that would be simple GREAT."

Now, I'll be honest; I'm not sure this is a realistic request. And while I do not want Heath's role as the Joker tainted by another actor trying to either recreate it or re-envision it, I do know that in another 15, 20 years, there will be another set of Batman films, at which point, they will surely bring in another actor.

I am with them 100% in spirit, though, and would very much support a moratorium on re-casting the Joker in the current set of films. If Nolan has footage of Heath and decides to use it, you will be looking at one happy kitten... but he simply cannot, and I don't believe he would, cast another actor. Definitely not for the time being.

Heath did it. He's iconic now.

Hollywood most likely will not take the petition of a bunch of fans seriously, but it does show the opinion of a huge number of movie goers. I did sign the petition, with the reservation that I do want to see more of Heath as the Joker, but no one else.

If you would like to sign the petition, you can go HERE.

What do you think of this campaign?

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