What with all the rumour’s flying about as to who should or shouldn’t be the villain in the Dark Knight sequel, most seem to forget or choose to forget that The Joker is not in actual fact dead. His line in the film to Batman, ” You and I are destined to do this forever”, if anything, suggests that we most certainly will see The Joker return sooner rather than later.

Were Heath Ledger not dead I have no doubt in my mind that he would have definatley appeared in the next film, but with the obvious problem of Ledger’s death its hard to see how Warner’s (and more pertinantly the Nolan’s in their scripting) will approach the subject. I feel quite strongly that we WILL see the character of The Joker appear, and would love to see him in a fully realised Arkham (the Arkham in Batman Begins lacked any character and was a wasted opportunity) maybe aiding Batman to an extent ‘Silence Of The Lambs’ style in order to catch another villain, likely The Riddler.

So with this in mind, and to whatever capacity The Joker may or may not return, who would the Nolan’s get to replace the seemingly irreplaceable Heath Ledger, especially given the plaudits he has recieved for the role AND how iconically he has made it his own. Names have been bandied about before, Paul Bettany, Lachy Hulme, Guy Pierce, the list goes on.

In my mind there is only ONE person who could do justice to what Ledger has achieved in emulating his performance but also making it his own. That person is Joseph Gordon Levitt!

Levitt starred with Ledger in 10 Things I Hate About You, but has never reached truly star making heights, mostly through choice, his efforts thus far have been some of my most highly rated films of recent years. Both The Lookout and Brick blew me away in their originality, and the calibre of acting. Most recently I saw him in Stop Loss, another astounding performance and once again showing great range. If anyone can pull The Joker off and do Ledger justice its him, and it also helps that they have a similar look about them!

What do you guys think? Good choice? Or do you have another suggestion…..