8 Theories About The Origins Of Heath Ledger’s Joker

7. Arkham Asylum Escapee

There was a lot of auxiliary material unveiled in the months preceding The Dark Knight's release that fleshed out the I Believe In Harvey Dent campaign and some of the Joker's previous actions. One piece of this, a file from the Gotham City Police Department, serves as one of the few official musings on the character's origins, with three different possibilities put forward. One was the previously mentioned soldier history, but this one is rather more straight down the line.

Essentially Joker is a normal patient at Arkham Asylum (if there is such a thing) who's escaped in an even worse condition (perhaps something to do with Dr. Crane's terrible methods). It still leaves open many doors, not really getting to the root of his psychological issues, but it provides a nice piece of potential back story.

After Batman Begins, where Arkham serves as a central point in the action, the Asylum was barely mentioned again, but given that Joker spends a lot of time there in other media it's not a ridiculous idea. This theory falls down a little when you consider that there was no record of him before being caught by Gordon, but if the police can think it's a possibility we have to include it.