Why We'll Never See a LEGO Batman Sequel

But I'm gonna have to make up an excuse to leave this party without anyone noticing

Bye." This totally should have gotten a sequel. And it almost did. Not just any sequel, either. No

the second Lego Batman movie was supposed to serve as an animated Justice League movie

Not excited yet? What if we told you it was supposed to be inspired by Boogie Nights? Yes

that Boogie Nights. "-I think heaven has sent you here, Dirk Diggler.

"-You're Dirk!" Dirk D. Stick with us here because it gets better

While Justice League members played ancillary roles in Batman's first solo outing in the

Lego-verse, they would have taken center stage in the proposed sequel. It would have been called Lego Super Friends and actually would have taken ideas from multiple

R-rated movies. It was fun for the whole family. Are you having the 57th annual Justice League anniversary party without me

No! No, no, no! I think we can all agree that sounds pretty awesome

And yet the project is as dead as Batman's parents. So what happened to it

What exactly would the Super Friends movie have looked like? And who do we have to threaten with a batarang to get this thing into theaters

We have to right a wrong. Sometimes in order to right a wrong, you have to do a wrong, right

Gandhi said that. To fully understand the gravity of what we've lost, we should first take stock of what we have

Because for a brief moment in time, the Lego Movie Empire seemed as indomitable as any other long-standing cinematic franchise

And it all began with the Lego movie in 2014. The double-decker couch, so everyone could watch TV together and be buddies

That idea is just the worst. When Lego's version of Batman first grumbled his way on screen as Wild Style's boyfriend

he swiftly became an icon. Relax, everybody, I'm here. Voiced by the always brooding Will Arnett, this grumpy and sardonic take on the character

felt both fresh and familiar. By marrying the campy 1966 Adam West TV series with the brooding but still comedic 1989 Tim

Burton movie and filtering it all through the lens of the hyper serious bat flicks we got

after 2008's The Dark Knight, this version of the caped crusader was able to have it all

First try The Lego movie was released in theaters in February of 2014 and by October of that same year it was announced that a Lego Batman spinoff film had officially been greenlit

And Bat fans weren't all that excited, actually, at first. Batman's been on the job for a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very long time

Considering a direct sequel had already been confirmed before the first movie even hit the

market, did we really need a character-specific spinoff too? Quick question. What is your problem with Batman

And also, what the heck, dude? As it turns out, we did

Helmed by the first Lego Movie's co-director and animation supervisor, Chris McKay

the Lego Batman movie shocked suspicious audiences by being kind of incredible

It was every bit as creative and funny as the original movie, and it was a gorgeous pay-in to the art of 3D animation

It was in equal parts irreverent and respectful of the history of its source material

I've seen you go through similar phases in 2016 and 2012 and 2008 and 2005 and 1997 and 1995 and

1992 and 1989. And to this day, it may very well be the most faithful adaptation of Batman that's

ever been put to screen. That's a bold claim, and we have a whole other video proving that point

so check it out and let us know if you agree. The point is that the film was a massive hit

and the Lego franchise felt unstoppable. The numbers really speak for themselves

the Lego Batman movie made $312 million off a budget of $80 million

and the world was clamoring for more of the plastic bat. McKay went to work on a sequel, or maybe more accurately, McKay went to work on a spinoff

A spinoff which rips its name directly from a 1973 Saturday morning Hanna-Barbera cartoon

which itself was adapting DC's Justice League of America comic books. Enter Lego Super Friends

Batman, you want to take a quick pic? Sure. Where do you want me? Right there's perfect. Here's the camera

Okay, party people, get together! Yeah, everybody say... Superman! Let me see, let me see

Classic! We got everyone! McKay actually spoke at length about the film in an interview with Collider

and then later with Uproxx. According to the man himself, it would have had a plot structure similar to The Godfather Part II

mixed with Boogie Nights, cutting between a modern conflict and flashback sequences that delved into Batman tumultuous relationship with Superman and the rest of the Justice League Yes you heard that right A children movie about Lego versions

of DC superheroes would have drawn inspiration from two decidedly R-rated classics. This movie

could have been incredible. McKay said Lego Super Friends would have concerned itself with

friendship and change. It was about how hard it is to change, to commit to change, to stay on the

new road you carved for yourself, especially when maybe you weren't such a good guy to your friends

Your old friends might not be able to see the new you. This idea should absolutely excite any

Batman fans watching, since it's a pitch-perfect idea for the character, especially with all the

groundwork laid in the preceding films with Batman's lone wolf persona, his found family

and his complicated feelings towards Superman and the Justice League. In the Uproxx interview

McKay even suggests that Superman himself would be struggling with the alienation from the human

race, and that the whole movie came down to one question. How do you become super friends

What are you doing here? Don't worry about it, dog. I'm not here to throw down or anything

No, I would crush you. Okay, sure, sure, sure. Another thing we can only speculate on is who

else might have made an appearance in the film. All the Lego movies make it a point to bring in

as many familiar faces and meta-references as possible across as many franchises as they can

legally get their trademarked C-shaped hands-on. According to McKay, Lego Super Friends wouldn't

have been any different from the past films in this regard. In that interview with Collider

he said, there was also going to be a big crossover at one point in the movie that you

can only do in a Lego movie. I'm sure you can guess what it was. The thing that will probably

never happen in a live-action movie. Considering the first Lego Batman movie featured some

supporting roles for Sauron, Voldemort, and a whole cast of other Warner Brothers villains

there's no telling what that crossover McKay is alluding to would have looked like. But

if he thinks it could only ever happen in a Lego movie, we can dream that Lego Super Friends might have featured a universe-bending crossover

with Marvel's Avengers. What is the password? Iron Man sucks! We will probably never know for sure, though

since the Lego Super Friends movie was pretty abruptly canceled sometime around 2020

Why? Universal struck a five-year deal with the Lego group for the exclusive rights to make future Lego films But all the films made before the deal and the characters in them those are all still owned by Warner Bros McKay can just take his Batman sequel pitch across the street to the other studio and by the time Warner Bros gets the opportunity to buy back the

rights, who's to say they'll want to? While they were wildly popular in the 2010s

Lego movies have since fallen behind the pack in terms of cultural relevance

"-Can't get much worse than this." "-Uh, hello neighbor." "-Oh no." "-It's Green Lantern!

Oh my gosh, we're roommates. How crazy is that? Does anyone have some kryptonite that they could give me

So far, Universal has only put out one Lego-related film, and it performs so poorly, you probably don't even remember its name

Piece by Piece was an animated biopic about the life of musician Pharrell Williams

which flopped into theaters back in 2024. It's a documentary targeted at millennials, animated in a way that appeals to children

and only got a limited theatrical run, and never stood a chance. You know, it'd be cool as if, like, we told my story with Lego pieces

Seriously? Yes. Okay. Moving on. Whether you personally liked Piece by Piece or not, the fact remains that it was a total financial failure

It didn't even make its budget back at the box office, and while Universal is still planning on releasing future Lego projects

all signs point to audiences having moved on from their once-favorite brick-focused film franchise

Who else drives you to one-up them the way that I do? Superman! Superman's not a bad guy

Then I'd say that I don't currently have a bad guy. I am fighting a few different people

What? Even before Universal bought up the rights, some fans were already tired of the Lego movie gimmicks

with the Lego Movie 2, the second part, failing to meet critical or financial expectations

It's been over a decade now since the first movie rocked our collective worlds, and with more interesting and experimental animated movies

being released every year, the Lego idea seems a little quaint by comparison

So with all that in mind, Lego Super Friends will probably never see the light of day

and that's unfortunate. Chance of total mission failure is 110%. Those are not great odds

We all know how much these Hollywood studios love to dust off old properties and build

on their foundations, and if there's one thing Lego's good for, it's building, as long as

they only build in black. I only work in black, and sometimes very, very dark gray