While friends, family and fans mourn the death of actor Heath Ledger, marketing executives at Warner Bros. are looking at the unraveling of the studio's nine-month long web campaign for "The Dark Knight," the next installment in the Batman series in which the star plays the Joker.

According to a Wall Street Journal story, the studio will need to rethink its campaign, which made Ledger's joker the centerpiece of a massive web push. So far, Warner Bros. has had no comment about the marketing of the film, saying only that the campaign would continue.

The viral campaign for "The Dark Knight" began in May, when a website appeared without mention of the movie. The site, IBelieveInHarveyDent.com, was meant to look like a political ad for Gotham's district attorney. The site, which was revealed as fake, set up the beginning of a slow, elaborate narrative aimed at revealing Ledger as the Joker.