Superhero films are aplenty these days and although many of them can be dismissed as just generic popcorn flicks, there are a number of films that really subvert the genre. The DCEU may not be the best representation of DC films today but let’s not forget, it’ll honestly hard to forget…. quite possibly the greatest comic book film of all time, The Dark Knight. There are tons of things to say about The Dark Knight especially Heath Ledger’s iconic portrayal of The Joker. The Joker had plenty of memorable scenes but one of the scenes really surprised an actor as to how it turned out in the end.
Gambol’s death at the hands of The Joker introduced audiences to the memorable “Why So Serious?” line but it was apparently not part of the initial plan according to actor Michael Jai White. White ho played the mob boss, Gambol told The Hollywood Reporter that the film had other plans for the character but it seems that Heath Ledger’s death may have affected that. The Gambol death scene was particularly weird in regards to how it was cut but it looks like we finally have an explanation for that. White said:
“I think that people can tell by the strange cut that I never shot a death scene…the character wasn’t supposed to be gone. That is something that happened in editing later.”
That little cut was one of the few tiny problems with The Dark Knight but White seems to perfectly understand where director Christopher Nolan was coming from when he made the decision. He further elaborated:
“Being that I have been on both sides of the camera, I understood…I was as surprised as anybody. The next few moments after Gambol hit the ground, I was in a state of confusion, like ‘What the hell happened? I guess I am not coming back.’ But, I have a producer’s and director’s mind-set, so I was able to look at it and think, ‘I guess they must have wanted to go this way.”
It’s hard to really say what other plans Nolan and team had for Gambol but it seemed like they didn’t really have much of a choice. Ledger’s death was no doubt a tremendous loss in the film industry and it’s a wonder what would have been if he were alive. He left a legacy like no other though with The Dark Knight being only one of the highlights of said legacy. The Dark Knight has left an impact like no other and ten years later, it is still the greatest comic book film of all time and perhaps one of the best films of the century.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
