The LEGO Batman Movie is a spin-off of The LEGO Movie featuring the character of Batman that was released on February 10, 2017. In October 2014, Warner Bros. scheduled The LEGO Batman Movie, a spin-off starring Batman for 2017, which moved The LEGO Movie Sequel to 2018[1] [2]. Will Arnett is set to return to voice Batman, while Chris McKay, who was earlier attached to the sequel, will direct the film which is being written by Seth Grahame-Smith and produced by Roy Lee, Dan Lin, Phil Lord and Chris Miller [3]. On April 20, 2015, Warner Bros. scheduled The LEGO Batman Movie, for a February 10, 2017 release date[4] and The LEGO Movie 2 for a 2018 release. On October 25, 2014, it was reported that Phil Lord and Chris Miller had signed to write The LEGO Movie sequel.[5] In July 2015, Arnett's Arrested Development co-star Michael Cera was cast to voice Robin[6]. In August 2015, Zach Galifianakis entered final negotiations to voice the Joker [7]. In October 2015, Rosario Dawson was cast to voice Barbara Gordon, the daughter of police commissioner James Gordon who later becomes the crime-fighting heroine Batgirl [8].
The following month, Ralph Fiennes was cast as Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's butler [9]. Mariah Carey, although initial reports indicated she was playing Commissioner Gordon [10], was actually cast as the as-yet-unnamed Mayor of Gotham City[11]. In the irreverent spirit of fun that made “The LEGO® Movie” a worldwide phenomenon, the self-described leading man of that ensemble – LEGO Batman – stars in his own big-screen adventure: “The LEGO® Batman Movie.” But there are big changes brewing in Gotham and if he wants to save the city from The Joker’s hostile takeover, Batman may have to drop the lone vigilante thing, try to work with others and maybe, just maybe, learn to lighten up. This article or section is incomplete.Please improve the article, or discuss the issue on the talk page. Three years after saving the LEGO Universe with Emmet and Wyldstyle, Batman continues fighting crime in Gotham City. During a mission to prevent The Joker from destroying the city, Batman hurts his arch-rival's feelings by telling him he is not as important in his life as he thinks he is, leading to the Joker to desire seeking the ultimate revenge on him.
The following day, Batman attends the city's winter gala as his alter ego, Bruce Wayne, to celebrate the retirement of Commissioner Gordon and the ascension of his daughter Barbara as Gotham's new police commissioner, but is infuriated when she announces her plans to restructure the city's police to function without the need of Batman. The Joker crashes the party with the rest of Gotham City's villains, but has all of them surrender to the police. Despite realizing that this makes him no longer relevant to the city's safety, Batman suspects his arch-rival is up to something and decides to stop him by banishing him into the Phantom Zone, a prison for some of the most dangerous villains in the Lego Worlds. Before he can make plans to acquire the Phantom Zone Projector that Superman uses, Alfred intervenes and advises him to take charge of Dick Grayson, whom Bruce had unwittingly adopted as his ward during the gala. Batman eventually agrees and fosters Dick as Robin. The pair manage to recover the Projector from the Fortress of Solitude, before breaking into Arkham Asylum and using it on the Joker.
Annoyed at his reckless actions and suspecting that the Joker wanted this to happen, Barbara locks up Batman and Robin. While the Projector is being seized as evidence, Harley Quinn steals it back and uses it to free the Joker, who unleashes the villains trapped within the Phantom Zone to cause havoc upon Gotham, including Lord Voldemort, King Kong, the Wicked Witch of the West, Medusa, the Daleks, Agent Smith, and Sauron. Realizing that the city does still need him, Barbara releases Batman and Robin and reluctantly teams up with them as "Batgirl" to stop the Joker, with the team joined by Alfred. Batman soon finds himself able to trust and rely on the others, allowing them to defeat Sauron, but upon reaching Wayne Island, he ditches the team out of fear of losing them like his parents, before confronting Joker alone. Upon seeing that the Batman will never change, Joker zaps him to the Phantom Zone, before stealing the Batcave's stash of confiscated bombs and heading for the city's Energy Facility.
Arriving in the Phantom Zone, Batman witnesses the harm he has caused to everyone because of his selfishness and slowly realizes his greatest fear when Robin, Barbara and Alfred decide to come to his aid. Making a deal with the Phantom Zone's gatekeeper, Phyllis, to bring back all the villains in exchange for returning to Gotham City, Batman arrives to save the trio and admits to them his mistakes, requesting their help to save the day. Seeking to stop Joker from setting off the bombs beneath the Energy Facility, thus causing the plates beneath Gotham to come apart and send the city into the infinite abyss, Batman and his allies team up with the city's regular list of villains, after they had felt neglected by Joker, with the group successfully sending back the escaped villains to the Phantom Zone. However, Batman fails to reach the bombs in time, the detonation causing the city to split apart. Realizing how to stop the city from being destroyed, Batman reluctantly convinces Joker that he is the reason for being the hero he is, and working together alongside Batman's friends, the villains, and the city's inhabitants, chain link themselves together, reconnecting the city's plates and saving Gotham City.
With the city saved, Batman prepares to be taken back into the Phantom Zone to fulfill his bargain with Phyllis, only to be rejected by the gatekeeper who chooses to let him remain after she saw how much he had changed in order to save everyone. Batman allows the Joker and the rest of his rogues gallery to escape with the confidence that whenever they return, then they'll be no match for the combined team of himself, Robin, Batgirl, and Alfred. Alongside the cast of characters credited by the film, additional characters also appear where their voice actors aren't credited or don't have dialogue in the film: Alongside Joker, other DC villains associated with Batman have considerable screen-time in the movie ranging from Penguin, Man-Bat, Captain Boomerang, Egghead, Crazy Quilt, Eraser, Polka-Dot Man, Mime, Tarantula, King Tut from Batman, Killer Moth, March Harriet, Zodiac Master, the Mutant Leader from The Dark Knight Returns, Doctor Phosphorus, Magpie, Calculator, Hugo Strange, a Red Hood, the Kabuki Twins from The Batman
, Gentleman Ghost, Clock King, Calendar Man, Kite-Man, Catman, Zebra Man, and a variation of Condiment King from Batman: The Animated Series. In addition to Superman, Flash, and Green Lantern, a number of DC Heroes (both from the Justice League and Super Friends) make appearances in the movie ranging from Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Martian Manhunter, Apache Chief, Black Vulcan, El Dorado, Samurai, Wonder Dog (who was the DJ at the Justice League's party), the Wonder Twins, and their Exorian monkey Gleek. Additional characters from other franchises appear in the movie that include the Daleks from Doctor Who, the Gremlins, the Wicked Witch of the West and her Flying Monkeys from The Wizard of Oz, Lord Vampyre, The Mummy, and the Swamp Creature from Lego Monster Fighters, the Kraken from Clash of the Titans, Agent Smith from The Matrix, the great white shark from Jaws, the skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts, and the Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptors from Jurassic Park.