Originally published February 3, 2015. Updated April 13, 2018.
Phil Lord and Chris Miller may not be returning to the LEGO Movie universe anytime soon (in a directorial capacity, at least), but are hard at work on producing several upcoming LEGO films, including The LEGO Movie 2 and the two spinoff films featuring LEGO Ninjago and LEGO Batman.
The latter project is the most exciting at the moment, in part because of how fun Will Arnett’s caped crusader was in The LEGO Movie last year, and because of how the film will reportedly explore all eras of Batman’s tumultuous cinematic history.
As such, there’s plenty of research to be done by Lord and Miller, as well as the film’s director Chris McKay. We’ve seen a few different interpretations of the Dark Knight through the last few decades – from the campy Adam West era to Michael Keaton’s two Tim Burton-directed entries. Then of course there’s the infamous Joel Schumacher period, and Christopher Nolan’s “grounded” take on the Dark Knight trilogy.
In order to accomplish this daunting task, Lord, Miller and McKay will be checking out all of the Batmobiles and trying on all the old Batsuits. You know, for educational purposes.
The trio talked a bit about their research plans with THR at the Annie Awards. Lord commented on trying on all the costumes, noting that he was particularly interested in West’s version and Clooney’s, which he called “the sexiest one… The Joel Schumacher one with the nipples.”
McKay dropped the tidbit about the Batmobiles, which means we could very well see a LEGO Batcave full of the iconic cars on the big screen:
“We looked at Batmobiles this morning. We went to Warner Bros. and opened up all the Batmobiles; we took photos of the interiors and the exteriors, as well as of the costumes and artwork. It was amazing. It was the best trip.”
