As the premiere of the next sequel of Batman franchise, “The Dark Knight” draws near, Warner Bros has released a new trailer on its publicity website which reveals that the movie ending credit will contain a tribute to the memory of Heath Ledger.

The Australian actor, who died in January, plays the role of “The Joker” and initially the marketing campaign of the movie was centered on the dark villain. The tribute reads “In memory of our friends Heath Ledger & Conway Wickliffe.”

Heath Ledger’s Joker character is scary in a realistic flesh and bones way, and he promises the end of Batman and the beginning of anarchy.

“What are you proposing?” one of his sidekicks asks. “It’s simple: Kill the Batman,” he replies in a menacing tone. “The city deserves a better class of criminal and I’m gonna give it to them,” he adds.  

Heath Ledger was born as Heathcliff Andrew Ledger on April 4, 1979 in Perth, Australia to a mining engineer and a French teacher. He and his sister, Katherine, were named after the main characters’ in Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering  Heights.”

He started his acting career at sixteen with a role in the TV series “Sweat” (1996) in which he played a gay cyclist. He did many appearances in Australian series like “Ship to Shore,” “Bush Patrol” and “Corrigan.” In 1997 he made his American television debut in the fantasy-drama “Roar” from Fox.

He got a lead role in the acclaimed Australian movie “Two hands” in 1998 which was followed in 1999 by the modern version of Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew”, “10 Things I hate about you” in which he co-starred along with Julia Stiles.

Heath rejected roles in teen movies and landed a role in “The Patriot”, a revolutionary theme movie, where he played the role of the oldest son of Mel Gibson. In 2001 he played in the medieval rock comedy “A Knight’s Tale”, followed by “Monster’s Ball,” “The Four Feathers,” “Ned Kelly,” “The Order,” and “Brothers Grimm” in which he co starred along with Matt Damon.

For “Brokeback Mountain” he received the award for “Best Actor of 2005” from the New York Film Critics Circle and the San Francisco Film Critics Circle and a nomination for the Golden Globes and Academy Award for Best Actor in a drama. In 2007 he was one of the six actors who portrayed Bob Dylan in the movie “I’m Not There.”

Heath Ledger died January 22 of an accidental prescription-drug overdose at the age of 28. He has just finished working in the sequel of “Batman Begins”, “The Dark Knight”.

Conway Wickliffe, a special-effects technician, died September 25 in England in a one-car crash during a test run for a stunt.

“The Dark Knight”, a sequel to 2005’s “Batman Begins” - stars Christian Bale as Batman, Heath Ledger as the Joker and Michael Caine as Batman's butler, Alfred. Morgan Freeman also joined the cast, along with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman and Eric Roberts.