By now, you’ve no doubt seen The LEGO Batman Movie, which means you’ll know that the final act is packed full of iconic villains. We’re not talking about the Caped Crusader’s rogues gallery, either, because while the likes of the Joker and the Riddler do appear here, it’s actually iconic baddies like Voldemort, Sauron and the Gremlins (seriously) who dominate this part of the film.
It was a bold move by director Chris McKay and one which has split fans right down the middle. While it was undeniably cool seeing the Dark Knight taking on this lot in The LEGO Batman Movie, his own foes got the short end of the stick. Ultimately, though, it’s fair to say that their inclusion was definitely good fun for the majority of viewers.
Now, in a recent interview, McKay has confirmed that at one point, he had a lot of other names lined up to make cameo appearances during the action-packed finale.
“I would have had Kathy Bates from Misery, and [Sherlock Holmes nemesis] Moriarty, and at one point I pitched Daniel Day-Lewis’s character from Gangs of New York and David Carradine from Kill Bill. At a certain point, though, you have to weigh what characters the kids going to get.
In LEGO, it’s sometimes hard to get a really quick interpretation of something. I was already worried that we weren’t doing enough with some characters. Also, at one point, we did put HAL from [2001: A Space Odyssey] into the movie, but it was a tough read. Maybe in future movies, we’ll try to bring more characters in.”
While hearing about some of these characters is definitely exciting, it may have pushed things too far had the director gone this route. Plus, it’s kind of hard to top Batman battling King Kong, so what good would someone like Moriarty do? (beyond the obvious jokes relating to the Caped Crusader being known as the World’s Greatest Detective)
It’s a tad concerning to think characters like these could show up in a sequel to The LEGO Batman Movie when there’s so much potential for his own villains, but we trust that the team behind the spinoff knows what they’re doing. After all, the film has proven to be a big hit so far and despite a few missteps, we’re certainly looking forward to seeing more.
