The gravelly-voiced Batman of The LEGO Movie, who was basically an arrogant, self-satisfied jerk, will get his own LEGO movie that Warner Bros. is slating for 2017 after the studio shifted the sequel to Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s LEGO Movie into 2018 or beyond.  Will Arnett, who voiced Batman in The LEGO Movie, will return in a film tailored specifically for the sarcastic, arrogant version of the Dark Knight, which struck a chord with audiences who made Lord and Miller’s The LEGO Movie the surprise hit of the first half of 2014 with a domestic box office take of $259 million.
 
The next LEGO film to hit theaters will be Ninjago, which is set to debut on September 23, 2016.  While the Ninjago  movie will find a receptive audience with kids, who have made Ninjago a top toy property, it is hard to see how it could command the broad appeal that made The LEGO Movie a hit with young and old alike.  By taking Christian Bale’s guttural Batman growl to a gravelly extreme and by pushing the brooding, crotchety nature of the Dark Knight Batman to a new level, Arnett and writers of The LEGO Movie managed to satirize Batman in way that pleased even fans of the Caped Crusader.
 
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lord and Miller will act as producers on the new LEGO Batman film, which will directed by Chris McKay, who supervised the animation on The LEGO Movie.  LEGO has already produced several games featuring Batman as well as direct-to-DVD releases, but the new LEGO Batman movie will feature the sarcastic self-absorbed Batjerk created by Arnett, Lord and Miller.