Ever since Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight’s reveal at gamescom 2025, one of the hottest subjects surrounding it has been the surprisingly small quantity of playable characters on its roster. However developer TT Video games guarantees that there’s an excellent purpose for this.
Over the previous decade or so, Lego video games starting from DC and Marvel superheroes to Star Wars and Harry Potter droids and wizards have included unlockable playable character numbers stretching into the a whole bunch, however in the upcoming Legacy of the Dark Knight, that complete at launch is simply seven. People who made the lower embrace the Bat household and some buddies: Batman, Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, Jim Gordon, Talia Al Ghul, and Catwoman.
IGN just lately spoke to the head of the TT Video games growth group, Jonathan Smith, to search out out why this quantity has been diminished so drastically by comparability. “We’re taking these particular person characters on a journey,” Smith explains. “So you might be continually upgrading and creating new abilities and opening up new talents for every of these characters. Inside the Bat household, as properly, we actually wished to concentrate on making these characters actually distinctive, making their personalities come throughout and their talents very distinct.”
For instance, Batman can throw batarangs and use his grapple to help in fight in addition to remedy puzzles, however Catwoman can utilise her rangy whip and name in the assist of her kittens by triggering a laser pointer on a goal. Those self same cats can be immediately managed by the participant to grant entry to small vents and distract unsuspecting guards with a pleasant “meow”.
Whereas the focus is seemingly on a deeper gameplay expertise this time round, with a Rocksteady Arkham-influenced combo-based fight system main that cost, followers of old-school Lego video games shouldn’t worry an excessive amount of, as Smith guarantees there’ll nonetheless be lots to gather throughout its open world and movie-inspired ranges.
“The story is extra centered on a tighter roster of characters that are actually extra differentiated with a lot deeper gameplay,” confirms Smith. “In order that they work properly in partnership with one another, and we then need to provide you with tons and much of choices to see the full vary of what these characters will be by providing you with greater than 100 completely different fits to gather. So you continue to get that second in the Bat Cave the place you have received all the completely different fits from all the completely different characters arrayed in entrance of you, colourful and superb. You are still compelled to need to full that assortment.”
For extra on Bat Fits, check out each one confirmed to be in Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight to date, and if you wish to know much more about the sport, take a look at extra from our interview with the studio as half of IGN Fan Fest 2026.
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can primarily be discovered skulking round open world video games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Observe him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.