Early design of Heath Ledger's Joker is seriously freaking people out

If you thought Heath Ledger’s Joker was menacing, just wait until you see the unnerving early concept for the iconic role.

Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight is widely considered one of the greatest super hero films ever.

Beyond that, it is a brilliant and somewhat realistic (we are talking about Batman here) take on the caped crusader and his arch nemesis, the Joker.

The late Heath Ledger really did step up to the plate and delivered a memorable and chilling performance as the Joker.

From his speech pattern, and makeup, the character is very much the definition of iconic at this point.

However, Professional concept artist Rob Bliss’s alternative look for the Joker is simply fascinating and has left fans freaking out.

Bliss has worked on concept art for films including the Harry Potter franchise, the Dark Knight and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

His initial concept art for the Joker's face has continued to disturb social media users as his image regularly circulates the internet.

Warner Bros.

While the final product for Joker in the film shows a more natural, ‘normal’ look, Bliss’ concept almost looks as if the Joker is wearing someone else's face. The mouth scars are also a lot more defined and less easy on the eyes.

The images, have been shared on Reddit previously and users couldn’t help but love them... while also being terrified.

“That is utterly horrific. I love it,” one user remarked.

“Makes me think of someone I don’t wanna encounter on a night out, anywhere. If I see this version, I’m s***-rocketing myself into the 5th dimension, away from this abomination,” joked another.

“If the dark knight was made in 1997 this would be the joker,” commented another.

“This is a real side of the Joker.. After seeing so many approaches (film, television, animation, not to mention all the illustration styles) this one still gives me pause. You'd need to go total 'R' with the film rating, no way around that,” a fourth commented.

Rob Bliss

“Those pictures weirdly reminded me of Tyler Durden and I kinda dig that thinking Ledger could have done something cool with this look too. But then again the one they ended up doing was timeless,”

When explaining his Joker designs, Bliss said he was ‘just trying to make him look as unhinged as possible’, and it is safe to say he succeeded.

Even though this wasn’t the joker we ended up getting, it certainly would have made for an interesting take for the clown prince of crime.

Topics: Art, Batman, Christopher Nolan, Film and TV, Joker, Heath Ledger

Gerrard Kaonga

Gerrard is a Journalist at UNILAD and has dived headfirst into covering everything from breaking global stories to trending entertainment news. He has a bachelors in English Literature from Brunel University and has written across a number of different national and international publications. Most notably the Financial Times, Daily Express, Evening Standard and Newsweek.