What Could Have Been / The LEGO Movie

Some early LEGO Movie concept art, with Thomas the Tank Engine up there. No, seriously.

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The LEGO Movie

• Before The LEGO Movie we all know and love came to be, Blur Studio pitched their own LEGO movie (concept art shown here), this being a Live Action/Animated hybrid, with the plot being that a Minifigurine leaves his owner's house and explores the outside human world, visiting other LEGO sets along the way. Warner Bros. rejected the pitch, instead opting for the final one we got today.
• The directors couldn't get all the licensed characters they wanted. They haven't said who these were, but obvious absentees are various Disney properties including Marvel Universe, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Star Wars. Except Star Wars characters did make it into the movie, which was thought otherwise thanks to the creators deliberately misleading the audience in interviews. Of course, LEGO has worked with Star Wars since long before Disney came into the picture.
• A dropped sub-title would have been "The Piece of Resistance".
• A script for the old ''Piece of Resistance'' title has surfaced. It's incredibly different from the final version, with many of the character's names changed, R2-D2 and Indiana Jones being main characters (this was before Lucasfilm was bought by Disney), Emmet still living with his elderly mother, who turns out to be "the most powerful woman in the universe", had Bad Cop actually swear instead of saying "darn", Larry the Barista having a larger role, and Benny having a co-pilot that's an inanimate mop called Moppy.
• The ending credits were meant to be more grandiose with the LEGO bricks spelling out the casts' name in a world that represents them (Unikitty would be in a cutesy world, Batman a Gotham-like city, etc). But the producers found it would take too many LEGO bricks and time to do, as the credits were actual stop-motion rather than CGI like the rest of the film.
• Metalbeard was originally going to be Wyldstyle's boyfriend, until they decided Batman would be even crazier.
• There was a planned Big Damn Kiss between Emmet and Wyldstyle (Played for Laughs and depicted as two toys awkwardly mashing against each other) but focus groups were iffy on it, and it was decided that Holding Hands was more appropriate.
• Unikitty was originally going to end up with either Metalbeard or Batman at the end of the movie.
• Lord Business's name was originally going to be "Black Falcon".
• The filmmakers considered Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney or Christian Bale to reprise the role of Batman.

The LEGO Batman Movie

• Concept art shows drastically different designs that were considered for some of the characters, including a hipster-esque Riddler, a literal Robin Hood outfit for Robin, and a Tommy Lee Jones version of Two-Face.
• The Nightwing outfit Dick dons during the final battle was originally much closer to the suit from the comics, even including the classic bird emblem.
• Batgirl, Commissioner Gordon, Catwoman, and Two-Face were all intended to be white at various points in the film's development.
• Some concept art has also revealed villains that didn't make into the final cut, including the Ventriloquist, Hush, Doctor Double X, and Silver Banshee.
• Had Ralph Fiennes voiced Voldemort's cameo here, he would have gotten a scene with Alfred to play off the fact that they were voiced by the same man.
• One of the intended villains to appear in the Phantom Zone was Darth Vader, but this was scrapped due to obvious copyright issues. Word of God confirmed he managed to escape on his own.
• Plans for a sequel were in the works, but the underperformance of The LEGO Movie 2 led to Warner Bros. shelving all future LEGO movie projects. It was presumed to have died with the franchise when Warner Bros. ended their film production deal with The LEGO Group later that year, and it was later confirmed in 2021 to have been cancelled.

The LEGO Ninjago Movie

• One early draft had the ninjas traveling back in time to try and prevent Garmadon from being bitten by the Great Devourer in the first place.

The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part

• The film was originally simply titled as The Lego Movie 2, then as The Lego Movie Sequel.
• Chris McKay was originally going to direct the film, but he chose to make his directorial debut on The LEGO Batman Movie instead. Rob Schrab then replaced McKay as director. If he would not have departed due to Creative Differences and Mike Mitchell succeding him, he would have made his directorial debut with this movie.
• Early reports claimed the second film would focus on Emmet's long lost sister, but this never happened and was likely scrapped.
• Batman was originally reported to be the only one kidnapped. However, all of Emmet's friends got kidnapped instead, likely to give Emmet more screen-time alone.
• The Popular Band almost received a Mockumentary leading up to Lucy quitting after Octan perverted "Everything is Awesome", but it got cut for time. The other singers — Hula Lula, Kitty Pop and Candy Wrapper — still appear in the final film, and its tie-in Collectible Minifigure line, but are mere extras in the Systar System.
• In one version of the film, Emmet and his friends would've been found by Rex Dangervest in his introduction and they would be part of the team to take down Queen Watevra. The original storyboards can be seen here.
• Another original storyboard (made by Head of Story Matt Flynn) shows an alternative version of Rex Dangervest's backstory. The difference here is the way is shown and Rex's original plan was to take Queen Watevra (originally called Queen MerPony) to the Stairgate and destroying her in pieces to make sure the kids won't playing with them anymore. Storyboards can be seen here.
• A parody of Harry Potter named Larry Poter would have appeared in the film voiced by Daniel Radcliffe, but the crew had feared that it would risk upsetting the Harry Potter fandom, so a parody of Mary Poppins named Larry Poppins appeared instead. Emmet gets called a "Hufflepuff" as a put-down, perhaps a leftover from the Potter idea.
• Development models reveal that Batman would've had a giant drill as a battle vehicle on Apocalypseburg.
• Some of the musical numbers' incidental dialogue sounds different on the soundtrack than in the final film; to quote an example from the start of "Not Evil":

  Lucy: Oh no, are we in a musical?
  Batman (soundtrack): Uh, hope not.
  Batman (movie): Yup. Get ready.

• Some of the deleted scenes show Lucy saving General Mayhem from threats from the human world, such as a gerbil and a Roomba.
• Maya Rudolph almost got to voice the "The End" card, which would've engaged with Lucy in some sassy banter over whether or not the movie should really end with everyone banished to the Bin of Storaj.
• After Lucy destroys Rex's flux capacitor, Rex originally merged with Emmet, forming a minifigure with Emmet's appearance and optimism, and Rex's physical strength. However, the animation looked too disturbing to keep in the final film.
• Takanuva from BIONICLE was featured in concept art◊ as part of Rex's crew. His introductory scene would have been a Biting-the-Hand Humor joke over The LEGO Group screwing up the Bionicle franchise, only to be interrupted by Rex.

  Takanuva: Hello. Greetings. I am Takanuva. I'm the sole survivor of a planet that was destroyed by t-
  Rex: Alright, alright, that's enough. Hey! Back down here!

Cancelled Films

• The Billion Brick Race
  • The film was originally planned to be directed and written by Jason Segal and Drew Pearce before Jorge Gutiérrez replaced both of them.
  • Gutierrez revealed more of the plot and has shown concept art of the scrapped film, which was supposed to be a homage to films like The Cannonball Run.
  • The final race would have involved the characters making their way through Lego versions of other movies and TV shows, such as La La Land and Gutierrez's own The Book of Life, all culminating with the Minifigurines literally meeting their maker, as in LEGO inventor Ole Kirk Kristiansen.
  • Gutierrez also envisioned Diego Luna and Emma Stone in the leads.
• Regarding the follow up to The LEGO Batman Movie:
  • Chris McKay revealed that both Michael Waldron and Dan Harmon were set to write the script.
  • The film's title would have been called LEGO Superfriends and would have centered around Batman's relationship with Superman and the Justice League, with inspiration coming from both The Godfather Part II and Boogie Nights.
  • Lex Luthor and OMAC would have been the main villains of the film.
  • McKay also teased "a big crossover at one point that you can only do in a LEGO movie. I'm sure you can guess what it was.", which many believe was supposed to be a crossover with the Marvel Universe.
  • Alas, any plans for such endeavors were scrapped in 2019, when LEGO jumped shipped to Universal Pictures, which of course doesn't own DC Comics, leaving the film to be scrapped.