No Joker Rising?

This week Christopher Nolan's Batman franchise returns to the big screen for the first time in four years. Though there has been speculations about plot (it was going to take place 20 years after the last, or maybe four) and anticipation about the new villains Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) and Bane (Tom Hardy) it seems the number one topic of conversation was the Joker- who was portrayed by Heath Ledger in a 2009 Oscar winning role. First was "will Ledger be replaced as the Joker?" Which seemed to die down when everyone from the franchise said that Heath was irreplaceable. However, everyone knows that between unused archive footage and "movie magic" it would still be possible to use Ledger (and perhaps a double) as the Joker so speculation became "will the Joker return?" or "how will they explain where the Joker went?"

After talking around the subject for a while and acting coy, Nolan has stated that it would be triviaizing the loss of Ledger to so much as mention the demented clown prince by name. For the record I firmly believe he is lying; as they say in his film The Prestige, "a magician never reveals his trick." I feel like he's trying to conceal the surprise Sixth Sense style. I have my ideas of how the Joker should will return which I won't reveal until it's happened or not. That said, if he is telling the truth and the Joker actually doesn't get so much as a name drop, Nolan is an idiot.

Allegedly, every other villain from the series is mentioned. By not saying only one person you are actually drawing attention to the Ledger tragedy not brushing by it. If he didn't want attention brought to losing Heath, Nolan should have told the cast and crew not to bring him up because when Batman himself, Christian Bale is "opening up about the loss of his friend for the first time" just as he promotes his last film makes me feel like he's trying to get attention. Also, from the inside perspective, if I lived in Other city, I would want to know if that guy was on the loose.
I guess only time will tell if Nolan did right or not.