BATMAN 3: The Joker will NOT feature says Chris Nolan

I've just got my hands on that Chris Nolan centric Empire Magazine (which we've now managed to plug three times in a few hours!!) and boy is there a big piece of blockbuster news scoop-age in there that has been missed by many. When asked on whether Nolan would re-cast The Joker forBatman 3, he 'emphatically and without hesitation' answers "NO!". So that's it, all the two year speculation on the ethics behind a potential re-casting of the late Heath Ledger in his Oscar winning, iconic role can be put to bed. THE JOKER WON'T APPEAR IN BATMAN 3. Presumably we have to imagine him for the time being as a mental patient locked up in Arkham Asylum. Transcript is after the jump; From the latest issue of Empire magazine; There is the ever-lurking question about villains: who will The Dark Knight tussle with this time... Could it possibly be a returning (and recast) Joker, pulling strings from Arkham, Lecter-style, Empire wonders? "No", says Nolan emphatically and unhesitatingly. He resists elaborating simply because, quite understandably, he says, "I just don't feel comfortable talking about it".