The Dark Knight Writer Claims Warner Bros. Originally Wanted Joker Origin Story Included

The Dark Knight's co-writer claims that Warner Bros. originally wanted Joker to have a origin story included in the film. Joaquin Phoenix's Joker might be the talk of the town now, but a lot of fans will never forget what Heath Ledger's performance brought to the table. David S. Goyer talked about the decisions behind the scenes during a Comic-Con@Home interview last weekend. He's saying that the executives wanted to have things a bit more fleshed out for the character in The Dark Knight. It was a change that proved unnecessary as the film is still cited on multiple "Best of" lists to this day.

"I do remember when we were talking about, 'Well, what if the Joker doesn't really have an origin story?" Goyer recalled. "Even after the success of Batman Begins, that was considered a very controversial thing, and we got a lot of push-back. People were worried."

In fact, the writer had a little bit to say about another controversial DC Comics decision over the weekend. He addressed the choice to have Superman kill Zod at the end of Man of Steel and how the thought process among the creative team influenced that decision.

"Ironically, there was a scene that we wrote that didn't get filmed in which [Superman's adopted father] Jonathan [Kent] takes young Clark hunting and they kill a deer, and young Clark is just gutted by the act, and Jonathan says, 'It's a powerful thing to take a life, even if you're forced to take a life.' I always thought that would have been interesting... We never filmed it," the writer explained.

"We were trying to tell a different type of Superman story, a Superman story that had never been told before. It required taking some big swings," he continued. "We talked about it, whether or not people would accept it. The editorial staff at DC had accepted it. That doesn't mean it wasn't a mistake. But if you sit there and go, 'I don't want to take any risk...' That's not a healthy way to approach the material."

Sometimes big success involves some risks along the way. In the cast of The Dark Knight and Joker, betting on some new ideas resulted in record box-office. However, on the other side of the coin, a lot of those bets rested on the audience's familiarity with the v villain. It is really going to come down to what the movie is and how much the studio is willing to trust the creative team in charge of the film.

Would you have liked to see Joker's origin in The Dark Knight? Let us know down in the comments!