Nobody expected any new information about the Joker in "The Dark Knight Rises."

Director Christopher Nolan stood his ground on the issue for years, respecting late actor Heath Ledger too much to return to the Clown Prince of Crime.

Nolan recently went into more detail on the subject for Empire Magazine:

We're not addressing The Joker at all. That is something I felt very strongly about in terms of my relationship with Heath and the experience I went through with him on The Dark Knight.I didn't want to in any way try and account for a real-life tragedy.

That was thought to be the final word on the topic, allowing fans to come up with whatever story they felt like for the "Dark Knight" villain. Many likely assumed he spend the rest of his days unceremoniously locked away in Arkham Asylum.

According to the official "Dark Knight Rises" novelization, they may be right.

Nuke The Fridge discovered the following quote from the novelization on the IMDB message boards:

Now that the Dent Act had made it all but impossible for the city’s criminals to cop an insanity plea, it (Blackgate Prison) had replaced Arkham Asylum as a preferred location for imprisoning both convicted and suspected felons. The worst of the worst were sent here, except for the Joker, who, rumor had it, was locked away as Arkham’s sole remaining inmate. Or perhaps he had escaped. Nobody was really sure. Not even Selina.

Also, check out a fan-created storyboard spotted by Movie Moron that's currently making waves on Reddit:

Not as official, but still pretty cool.