10 Insanely Dark Joker Moments That'll Never Make It To Film

2. The Joker Tortures Tim Drake - Batman Beyond: Return Of The Joker

If what happened to Jason Todd was horrific enough, you could make an argument that Tim Drake got it even worse. In the acclaimed animated Batman Beyond: Return of The Joker, it€™s revealed that The Joker is back and is tormenting the future Gotham City. As the story progresses, it€™s explained how The Joker is essentially using the middle-aged Tim Drake€™s body as a vessel to turn the former Boy Wonder into a clone of Mr J. But that€™s nothing compared to what has gone before this moment. During Batman Beyond€™s run, the whereabouts and stories of Tim Drake and Dick Grayson are rarely touched on. In Return of The Joker we find out the horrible truth behind Tim€™s story. The Joker and Harley Quinn had abducted the young Drake, who by this point had taken over the Robin mantle from the Bludhaven-bound Dick Grayson. Whilst holding Tim hostage, the villainous duo would torture him for three weeks solid, even going so far as to make him look like The Joker. During this time, the Clown Prince of Crime also managed to get young Tim to crack and reveal all of Batman€™s secrets. By now Tim was essentially a drone for The Joker. When Batman turned up to rescue his protégé, Joker attempted to get him to kill his mentor - but Drake would end up killing The Joker with a spear gun before he had a mental breakdown and was forbidden from ever becoming Robin again. To sum it up briefly, we won€™t be seeing The Joker torturing a young boy for three weeks straight in any silver screen adaptation. Even to this day, certain moments of Return of The Joker make for a very uncomfortable viewing experience.
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Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.