The Art of Creative License in LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight

I was invited out to Los Angeles to play LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight last week, and it was two hours of fun and laughter. TT Games has years of LEGO titles under its belt, and while I was a bit worried about translating something as brooding as The Dark Knight into something family-friendly, the company has proved, yet again, that they are not to be doubted.

After playing two hours of LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, taking Batman through a funhouse, a heist, a circus and out on the town in Gotham, I was able to pick the brain of TT Games Cinematics Writer & Director, Bob Scott. He discussed which creative licences needed to be taken to make The Dark Knight more digestible for children, what goes into turning such a popular IP into a game, and even how they chose which characters to include in Legacy of the Dark Knight.

Thank you for being here with me today. This is a big day! You are getting people’s hands on LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. How does it feel so far?

Bob Scott: It’s nerve-racking because we put so much love and effort into the game. It’s now going out in the world, and we want people to really enjoy it. It feels exciting, you know, but also a little bit scary.

Tell us about your role on LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. What do you oversee?

Bob Scott: So I’m a cinematics writer and director, but I’m also part of the narrative team to help plan and put together the story for the overriding arc of the game.

Why was this version of Batman the right story to tell within a LEGO Batman game?

Bob Scott: Okay. That’s a good question. We were looking at our previous success, the Star Wars game, but we had a we had nine films to use there, and we had a progressive story that ran through the whole thing. We wanted to do something similar with Batman, but every film had…they overlapped in what stories they told, and there wasn’t a through arc that went through all of them.

So we took our favourite parts and the most iconic moments that we wanted from those IPs, and we decided to make one big tribute to the game, but with one narrative arc. We used The Dark Knight trilogy as a spine, and then it kind of developed from there into a bigger story.

Would you say it’s easier or harder to take something that is many films and bring them into one game like LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight?

Bob Scott: I think it’s insanely hard. I can say that from experience, but it was a labour of love. We wanted all those references in there, and we wanted all those IPS in there. We’re all massive fans, so putting every iteration of Batman that we could find or that we wanted to have in there was a labour of love.

Do you think there’s going to be some surprises for people in LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight? I mean, Batman fans can be pretty hardcore, and when you’re talking about putting every little reference in there, will there be some obscure ones for them?

Bob Scott: I think there are a million small Easter eggs and surprises. I think if you spend even two minutes in the city, you’ll find about five of them in a fraction of a second. There’s everything from…yeah, there is a lot. I’m really nervous about ruining or spoiling things because I want people to find stuff. 

But, you know, that’s the thing that we’ve done at TT for a very long time. There’s still a reference in Star Wars I put in, and nobody’s found it, at least not to my knowledge. So I’m hoping that there will be some long-lasting ones in there in Batman.

Do you have to have like a resident Batman fan that oversees all of this in LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight?

Bob Scott: Well, we have DC comics, you know, they do help quite a lot [laughs]. We have a narrative team. So it was made up of two cinematics directors, myself, and Dave Brown. And then we had an in-game writer who was also part of it, James Pugh. And then we filtered out that with his team and my team, so we have loads of fans that were bringing all of their particular little nuggets of wisdom. There are nods to not only Batman IPs, but to movies beyond that are linked and connected, so there’s a lot there to find.

WARNING: Some story spoilers ahead

What challenges come up in telling a story like The Dark Knight films through something as family-friendly as a LEGO game?

Bob Scott: That is a very good question because the the whole the whole Batman story has to start with the death of his parents, which is the hardest thing to describe to a child. That scene…it was very difficult, in order to tell it in a way that had pathos, but also, we had to put humour in there. 

And there’s a couple of moments in the game that you haven’t seen yet where we put together one of the scenes, and my layout artist showed it to his six-year-old daughter, and her reaction was she took her headphones off and sat down and went, “Poor Batman.” So, we had to, like, “Let’s go back to put some jokes in there,” you know? There’s a balance to be had. 

Working with LEGO, they’re very conscious about this stuff. So they’re great at being able to advise. DC were there to make sure that we didn’t veer too much from the canon and we stayed true to the characters. With our knowledge and our IP partners, we got there, and it was good, but it always felt like a collaboration. They were as excited as us to, “Oh, can you get this in the game?” It’s like, “Oh, this would be cool in this bit.” It was a really nice relationship, certainly.

Now, how do you choose which stories to—I don’t want to say lighten up, but almost change—because there are some parents whose fates are a little different in LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight? 

Bob Scott: Oh, yeah. You’ve just played the circus! I love that scene with the ketchup, and then you think, “Oh my goodness!” Well, I think in that case, we didn’t have to show them dying. With Batman, it’s such an iconic moment. There’s no way we could have avoided it. That’s why it was included. 

But if we didn’t need to show a child with their parents being murdered, we avoided it. But we didn’t think it was essential to the story. Robin’s trauma is a part of how he identifies with Batman, but it doesn’t define him quite as much as it did to Bruce.

Was there ever a worry that you might lose some of what makes Batman—or Robin, in this case—special, changing those darker moments that built who they are? Or do you find ways to build this new version of them throughout LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight?

Bob Scott: I never thought we would lose any character by taking away the darkness. Batman has been interpreted in very light-hearted ways as well as dark, and there was plenty of examples that we could take to help guide that hand. There are some downbeat moments in the game, and there’s some moments where you’re like, “Oooh!” and personally, I really wanted that. 

I didn’t want another game where you talk down to a child, you know, condescended to them. I wanted them to feel this. We were telling them a true story, you know, with real feelings and real outcomes, and have those characters come out and come through.

Do you think that any of the gameplay in LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is going to be a lot different from past LEGO games? How do you think it differentiates?

Bob Scott: Well, there’s a lot more focus on the combat. We’ve slimmed down the amount of playable characters for that very reason. We wanted to concentrate on making the experience with each of those characters unique and really work it up so that the combat felt less like just pressing a button and more like a thing that you had to learn and evolve, and you felt like it was a bit more of a challenge, but fun and engaging. The only way to do that was less characters and more focus on each one, basically.

I don’t know if we know this or if you’re allowed to tell me, but do we know exactly how many playable characters are in LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight?

Bob Scott: There’s seven currently in the game.

I was counting the costumes in the Batcave. I thought I knew how many, but then I found a back room, and I didn’t know anymore! So you have seven playable characters in LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. How do you make the decision for who those could be?

Bob Scott: It was tough, but we based them mostly on the movies. So the iterations of the characters are, most of them, when you see them in the game, they’ll be based on where they appear in the IPs that we’re using. But, you know, at first it was difficult, because we always wanted a two-player game. 

We wanted this to be an experience that people could enjoy with their children or their friends together, and with how it kind of goes along with the theme of the game, which is that Batman never works alone. He has a family, and it’s his family that are his redemption in the end. You know, he uses fear as a weapon, and fear doesn’t work when he comes up against somebody who has no fear. And then it’s the love of his family that saves him, you know? 

So having those pairings was essential not only to the gameplay but also to the story. But they kind of evolved. Gordon is a really good example. We brought him in. He’s traditionally not a big combat character in the IPs, but we worked with the voice actor, Colin McFarlane, and he just brought him alive. And all of a sudden, he became the kind of cool dad character. And this great kind of pairing happened between them, where you had the young Batman and the old cop, and it was really lovely to see come alive on screen in the game. 

He started off as an odd choice. But then, in the end result, he’s the obvious choice for that moment. But also, in Batman’s early days, his allies and accomplices are few and far between. That’s the whole point, isn’t it? It’s like he starts off as a man fighting back, and then he builds the Bat Family. So yeah, Gordon was kind of the only choice, but he works incredibly well—I love it. My favourite moments in the game are when those two are together, and he’s got some great weapons as well, and great gadgets.

As you mentioned, a lot of the focus in LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is more on combat. Are you worried that it might not be as accessible for younger audiences? 

Bob Scott: Absolutely. Yeah, I think absolutely. You walk around smashing LEGO. Everybody’s made of LEGO. The guns are all brightly coloured. They shoot bright colored projectiles. We did a lot of work to make sure that it never felt like a real world, you know?

Like we weren’t watching the actual The Dark Knight films.

Bob Scott: Exactly. To an older player, we’ll feel like there’s peril because you’ll be able to go to those higher levels, and those weapons will do you damage. But visually, and if you play in the classic mode, it will feel like an old-style classic LEGO game. And it feels very…like all the finisher moves are pulling out pies and, you know, attaching balloons to the back of their pants. So it feels very child-friendly, you know?

So these are the last two very important questions. First, of the Dark Knight films, which one is your favourite?

Bob Scott: It’s got to be The Dark Knight. I watched it again recently with my son, and because he’s old enough to watch it now, and it’s it’s breathtaking. It’s just, it’s a great film.

And then the last one. Of everything that you’re allowed to tell me about in LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, what are you most excited to see players get their hands on?

Bob Scott: There are some great moments in the game that we haven’t shown anybody yet. And I’m thinking of three, and all three of them we haven’t shown anybody yet.

It’s nice to know I have three more things to look forward to in LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight!

Bob Scott: Yes, there are. There are three better things than you’ve seen, according to me, anyway. 

Better than cranky LEGO Batman in a ball pit?

Bob Scott: Well, it’s all subjective.

Awesome. Thank you very much.

Bob Scott: Thank you so much!

LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight releases on May 22, 2026, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC (Steam & Epic Games Store), and Nintendo Switch 2 later this year. You can preorder the Deluxe or Standard version on Amazon now.