To the Batcave! Warner Bros. Greenlights ‘LEGO Batman’ Spinoff Film

This year’s hit The LEGO Movie was filled with a lot of breakout characters, but no doubt one of the best was Will Arnett’s Batman. We know that Warner Bros. has already greenlit a few LEGO Movie sequels, but now it looks like those are being pushed back so that we can get spinoff film featuring the Dark Knight himself.

Yep, you heard right. Warner Bros. is pushing back The LEGO Movie sequel and fast tracking The LEGO Batman movie. The LEGO Batman film is predicated to take The Lego Movie 2‘s May 26, 2017 spot, while the sequel will be released sometime after that. The LEGO Ninjago film is still on track to be released September 23, 2016.

If I didn’t know any better, it sounds like Warner Bros. is trying to create their own LEGO cinematic universe. It would make sense, based on the huge success of Marvel’s cinematic universe and the plethora of unique characters in the original LEGO film. Putting a standalone Batman film between the original and sequel’s release will not only build up the character’s popularity, but make audiences even more excited to catch the sequel in theatres.

Will Arnett’s Batman took Christian Bale’s iconic gravely voice to the next level. The character was serious, funny, dark, sarcastic and even had a decent set of pipe in his debut single “Darkness! No Parents!” Outside of The LEGO Movie, the LEGO Batman franchise is already tremendously successful with three video games and a direct-to-DVD film.

The film will be directed by The LEGO Movie’s animation supervisor Chris McKay and the script will be penned by Seth Grahame-Smith. The original film’s directors Phil Lord and Chirs Miller will produce along with Roy Lee and Dan Lin.

The LEGO Batman movie is expected to be released May 26, 2017.