Not that it really matters - the guy is gone, big deal if a marketing campaign has been thrown into turmoil - but according to Warner Bros, Heath Ledger had completed all his work on “The Dark Knight”, so they're safe there – and the only problem they’ve got on their hands is “The status of the pic's marketing campaign. The first phase is built around the Joker and pics of his character are particularly ghoulish. Warner execs were still grappling with the news on Tuesday and had no comment on how they would proceed”, said Variety.

The "Dark Knight" rollout will present more than a few challenges en route to opening weekend. One poster shows the Joker the character drawing a clown's smile on a mirror with red lipstick and scrawling the words, "Why So Serious?" Tagline was also used to launch a Joker-centric website that the studio used to bow new photos from the pic and a viral scavenger hunt, among other games.

"The Joker character is dealing with chaos and life and death and a lot of dark themes," one insider with knowledge of the campaign said. "Everyone is going to interpret every line out of his mouth in a different way now."

As for those that are wondering whether The Joker, and therefore Ledger, was supposed to come back for the third ‘Batman’ film?– Yes, the character is in stencil for the third film. If I recall correctly, David Goyer (writer) wrote into the third film that The Joker somehow aids Batman in his search for that film's villain, Two-Face - whether that's from a jail cell, or the looney bin Fortunately for the filmmakers, it would only be a cameo by The Joker (either behind bars, or some kind of flashback) so they can work around that - I presume they'll either cut the character from the eventual script or simply re-cast (and have that person in the shadows). Again, who gives a shit. It's not really important... but everyone's emailing me and asking so there's the answer.

Warner have issued a press release.

"The studio is stunned and devastated by this tragic news," said Alan Horn, president-COO, Warner Bros. & Jeff Robinov, president, Warner Bros. Pictures Group. "Heath was a brilliant actor and an exceptional person."