You'd be fooling yourself if you didn't acknowledge the fact that The Lego Movie owes part of its breakout success to the performance Will Arnett gave as the film's version of Batman. How else would you explain the existence of not only the upcoming sequel, but also The Lego Batman Movie? Yet for all of the laughs and gags the film is promising, there's one big mystery in the Batman universe that the animated spin-off is looking to explore: why's Batman so moody all the time?
This knowledge came directly from Will Arnett, as he spoke with Entertainment Weekly about his role in The Lego Batman Movie, which opens next February. Not only did Arnett reveal that The Lego Batman Movie was greenlit mere days after The Lego Movie hit the big time, but he also explained the initial germ for the film's story. That germ was encapsulated in the actor's following comment:
What came out of The LEGO Movie was the idea of, Batman's the Dark Knight, so why is he so moody? What's going on? Why is he so banged up? And wouldn't it be fun to get in there and explore that. [Exploring Batman's moodiness] was always the intention, but as you record a few sessions and you get on these tangents, you end up taking the entire story down a road that wasn't necessarily the intended road. It can totally drastically change the narrative just through goofing around.
The undeniably moody temperament of Bruce Wayne and Batman is obvious grist for the mill, seeing as Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice took another trip to the well on that story point, and there's clearly still some life in that storyline. However, it seems kind of weird to us that Will Arnett and those involved in The Lego Batman Movie wouldn't see that the death of Bruce Wayne's parents is pretty much 10 out of the 11 reasons that the hero has always been a dark and brooding figure. It's even acknowledged in the soundtrack to The Lego Movie in the track "Untitled Self Portrait," which you can listen to below.
Interestingly enough, it sounds like one of two things is about to happen: either The Lego Batman Movie is going to explore the deaths of Martha and Thomas Wayne, in a way that only the Lego franchise could ever dream to, or they're looking to change the origin story to a more plastic / stop motion friendly version that families can enjoy. Either way, we don't think Will Arnett would talk about Batman's moody nature in such a nature without hinting toward either of the above mentioned outcomes.
We'll just have to wait and see what happens when The Lego Batman Movie puts the Caped Crusader on the couch on February 10, 2017.
