*To prepare for the role, Ledger lived alone in a hotel room for a month, formulating the character’s posture, voice, and personality, and kept a diary, in which he recorded the Joker’s thoughts and feelings.

While he initially found it difficult, Ledger eventually generated a voice unlike that of Jack Nicholson’s character in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman film.
He was also given Batman: The Killing Joke and Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, which he “really tried to read and put it down”.
Ledger also cited A Clockwork Orange and Sid Vicious as “a very early starting point for Christian [Bale] and I. But we kind of flew far away from that pretty quickly and into another world altogether.” “There’s a bit of everything in him. There’s nothing that consistent,” Ledger said, adding that “There are a few more surprises to him.”
*From Wikipedia

This is what the guy did for his role. I think it’s fair to say he recreated the character, and he went to extraordinary lengths to do so. Alone in a hotelroom, writing artificial thoughts and feelings… I imagine he almost became the character, and “knew” him. I’m having a hard time imagining any actor being able to copy that, and therefore I don’t think anyone will be able to be a better Joker IN NOLANS UNIVERSE.

That’s an important note. I’m not saying the Joker should be buried with Ledger, what I’m saying is that I don’t think anyone could outact Ledgers Joker, which has his place in Nolans universe. For the next era of batman, sure, bring him back up. But I don’t think it would be right to give another actor a go for this role.

I could, of course, be wrong. But this is what I think. In fact, I think there shouldn’t be another movie. I pictured the next movie as the grand arena for Batman and Joker, different from Dark Knight somehow, dunno how, though… But he’s the best villain Batman’s got, as far as I’m concerned. And I find it improbable that ANOTHER villain SUDDENLY appears. I mean, where do they hide all the time? A third villain would be, in my imagination, ridiculous(I don’t count two-face as a real villain). Ras Al Ghul lead an army that had already existed for thousands of years, and Joker, well, he suddenly found a playmate^^ But a third… Nah. Besides, I like open endings. They could easily not make another movie without me getting angry. Everyone else, however…

Well, sorry ’bout the wall of text, folks^^ Hope someone replies:P

And I think that the joker will probably play a role in future installments to the series. It could be a cameo at Arkham asylum or big role i a movie. Personally, I think he will play a role similar to Hannibal Lecters in Red Dragon or The silence of the lambs.
Like try to imagen this:
Since the Joker appeared several bad guys similar to him have appeared (ex. The penguin). Plus the police is still chasing Baman. In addition to this a new super villain appears and begins to leave his marks on the town(most likely the Riddler). Officer Gordon tries to further explore what the villain may do next and tries to get advice of the Joker. But the Joker replies that he won’t give them anything unless they are willing to give him a meeting with the Batman. A thing very hard to fix indeed. At the same time the joker could probably lure himself out of Arkham with the help of Harleyquin (if she would appear I think she should be played by Jennifer Tilly).
Anyway that’s just my idea of it. I bet that the third movie will be worthy seeing with or without the joker.

I love the way Sophie put it. Ledger really put his heart and soul into the character. He cannot be replaced and that’s the simple truth. I’ve always loved the Joker character, moreso, perhaps, even than The Batman, and what Ledger did to it’s presentation was flawless. If it could please even the most fickle of comic book fans, it deserves to be celebrated and again, as Sophie put it, it was his swan song.

The Guy Pearce analogy doesn’t work. See, what you fail to stay coherent to is that Ledger was on square one and he built The Joker from there all by himself to fit into Nolan’s Gotham. If Guy Pearce had done the same, Ledger would just ruin the role. No one can fit into those shoes. Can’t be done!

You’ve already been corrected on the Jordan analogy but I’ll reiterate the other comments, just for good measure… just because Heath died, it doesn’t mean acting needs to stop as a whole. It just means that The Joker HE created needs to be his own. I’m sure you wouldn’t want someone pissing on your grave that way either.

And… I’m sure it can be done better. But not if it’s done the exact same way. If it’s done the same way, as the same Joker in the same continuity, it’ll be lucky to even be as good as Ledger, if at all even decent. You can’t compare body-building to art.

Finally, I’d like to ask you all a question about this topic… Let’s say, for one second… Nolan decides to cast some other actor after all. It can go one of two ways… One, he’ll suck and ruin the franchise as a whole… Two, he’ll be better or as good and poor Ledger’s accomplishments and pioneering will become a footnote in the Batman mythos. Is that what we want for a creative, industrious, and all-around decent man? For his crowned performance to be forgotten this way by vultures? I certainly disagree. After watching TDK, I grew to care for Ledger and started look into his life and older movies. He was a good man. No doubt about that whatsoever. And I also have no doubt, whatsoever, that he will not be replaced. Nolan isn’t an idiot. ‘Nuff said.

“…just so the character would be retired if he couldn’t play the part anymore??? That’s sheer nonsense in my opinion. That’s the equivalent of saying “The best way to honor the magnificent career of Michael Jordan and to thank him for what he did for the game of basketball is to shut down the NBA after he retired”….”

Retiring an individual character and shutting down an entire sport are not equivalent to one another at all!!!

Your analogy is SHEER NONSENSE, the equivalent would not be to shut down the NBA, it would be to retire the players number out of respect for that particular player. No one is asking to get rid of “acting” all together, they’re simply suggesting to retire the character out of respect, not the actual act of acting.

Heath Ledger’s shoes will be very hard to fill. There is one man that I think that will fit the bill in a return role in Nolans Batman movies. That man is a little known character voice artist from Toronto by the name of Chris Elchesyn age 26 and is on You Tube..

He goes by the name Huntie on You Tube… His Joker is even Darker than Ledger’s but as a return character with the likes of the Penguin or the Riddler he would fit right in as ther leader.

Thanks Max