Gambol

**Gambol** is a minor antagonist in the 2008 superhero film *The Dark Knight*, the second installment of Christopher Nolan's *The Dark Knight Trilogy*. He is mostly known for his iconic scene with the Joker, in which the Clown Prince of Crime kills him while asking him "Why [He's] So Serious?". However, unknown to many, Gambol wasn't actually intended to originally die.

He was portrayed by Michael Jai White in the final project.

## Biography

In an original version of the film, the story played out much like it did in the final version, with the Joker offering the mob bosses of Gotham City to kill Batman in exchange of a large sum of money. While The Chechen agrees to the Joker's offer, Gambol refuses to accept such offer as the Joker had previously stolen their money from the Gotham National Bank and instead places a bounty on the Joker's head (a million dollars for capturing him alive so he can personally kill him and $500,000 for capturing him dead), refusing to accept his conditions. Thus, the Joker threatens to blow up himself so Gambol can't kill him and leaves so the mob bosses can consider his offer.

Later on, while playing pool on his lair, Gambol is notified by his men that some bounty hunters killed the Joker. As such, the Joker's corpse is brought to him and Gambol decides to pay them. Before he can do so, however, Gambol is surprised by the Joker, who wasn't really dead, while the bounty hunters take Gambol's men hostage. Holding Gambol and threatening him with his knife, the Joker proceeds to tell Gambol, supposedly, how his drunken father gave him his Glasgow Smile before stabbing Gambol in the mouth, killing him before offering one of his men to join his gang if he kills the other one.

Although this seems to be Gambol's death in the finished film, in response to how many people perceived the cut to be somewhat strange, Michael Jai White revealed in 2018 that Gambol's last scene in the film wasn't even intended to actually have been a death scene at all. Instead, Jai White claims that Gambol was intended to survive his encounter with the Joker, only getting a Glasgow Smile in the process. There was also even a chance to bring back Gambol in a future sequel.

However, Gambol's further scenes, among other things, were cut later on during the editing process. Although Jai White doesn't exactly know why it happened, he thinks that any plans for Gambol were changed following the unfortunate passing of Heath Ledger, the actor who played the Joker.

## Trivia

* Some fans still debate whether Gambol actually survived or not, as some of them claim that Gambol can be seen later on in the film being arrested by the Gotham City Police Department on his neighbourhood. This is unlikely, as then the Joker's purpose to visit Gambol's lair would have been useless and the mob bosses would have likely not hired the Joker if Gambol told them what he did to him, unless Gambol chose to not speak for the fear of getting killed.
	+ However, *The Art and Making of The Dark Knight Trilogy* does confirm that Gambol died, so this likely discards Gambol's possible survival.
* Michael Jai White's claims that Gambol was originally intended to survive his encounter with the Joker before the idea was changed during editing can be backed up by the fact that the screenplay of *The Dark Knight* doesn't specify whether Gambol is dead or not after the Joker's attack: it just states that Gambol falls down after the Joker flicks his wrist.