With LEGO® Batman™: Legacy of the Dark Knight just around the corner, and LEGO® Star Wars™: The Skywalker Saga nearly four years behind us, it’s clear that TT Games’ focus has shifted towards much larger, cinematic titles. A celebration of Batman’s history, weaving together its various eras and adaptations, is a cause worthy of a fourth LEGO® Batman title, but it got me thinking about the other fantastic LEGO® games of a bygone era.
Let’s have a reminder of what other series TT Games could return to, and give the expanded, modern reimagine that the Star Wars™ and Batman™ have received.
Pirates of the Caribbean™
Since its release fifteen years ago, LEGO® Pirates of the Caribbean has been somewhat forgotten about, with it being the one entry on here that only has a single game under its belt. If we take the idea of open-world exploration from the two aforementioned LEGO® games, and shift its focus to seafaring, like in games such as The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag and more specifically Kingdom Hearts III, I’m sure it would be a worthwhile voyage to embark upon.
While the franchise isn’t as beloved as Star Wars™ or Batman™, if it were timed with an upcoming film release, and incorporated the fifth film, which wasn’t out when the original game debuted, then I think players would have enough reason to want the swashbuckling series back in LEGO® form.
Harry Potter™
Here’s a franchise that never loses steam. Despite the issues surrounding the series’ creator, it’s been proven that the wizarding world always has its fans. My favourite part of the old LEGO® HP games (which were remastered in 2024) was walking the halls of Hogwarts, discovering new rooms and secrets, which I’d like to think had some influence on the more recent game, Hogwarts Legacy.
Hogwarts Legacy, however, could be the reason we don’t see a new and improved LEGO® game, as perhaps it would draw too many parallels. A fun aspect of the Skywalker Saga was that you could travel to the levels in chronological film order, and if you’ve played either LEGO® Harry Potter™, you’ll remember that you do exactly that, going between classrooms and locations within the hub-world to start a level. Perhaps if they were to return to the series, an entirely different approach could be taken, maybe focusing on Fantastic Beasts, or even the new TV series.
Indiana Jones
This one is perhaps the least likely, as Dr Jones’ adventures have already been portrayed in LEGO® form twice, and in pretty quick succession. The second of which added levels from Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and also alternate levels for the first three films. We’d maybe need more to warrant returning to the series than just the fact that it’s had another film.
While Dial of Destiny should get the LEGO® treatment, it might be worth waiting to see if we get something like an inevitable prequel film, just to have more to go on than a second reworking of the same levels. While I mentioned the parallels of Hogwarts Legacy to a new LEGO® Harry Potter game, I doubt that a new LEGO® Indy would be hindered by the release of The Great Circle, the first-person Indiana Jones game that came out in 2024. I think there’d be a very different audience and tone that would prevent it from being overshadowed, but that’s assuming there’d be enough reason to make a new game. Perhaps, like The Great Circle, it could have an original story, as many of the LEGO® Superhero-based games have. Speaking of…
Marvel™ Superheroes
I think just behind the LEGO Star Wars™ and Batman™ nostalgia comes the set of LEGO® Marvel™ games, more specifically the game LEGO® Marvel Superheroes. Exploring open-world New York was a blast, and its original story that incorporated fan-favourite heroes was pulled off flawlessly. Since then, we’ve had two more titles. LEGO® Avengers, which similarly had an explorable Manhattan but focused on the Avengers films. As well as LEGO® Marvel Superheroes 2, an underrated gem that took the wackiest characters and locations from the long history of Marvel™ Comics and smashed them together.
They could easily expand on those premises, with a deeper dive into the comics or drawing from the many films in the MCU. Additionally, a Spider-Man game in a similar fashion to Legacy of the Dark Knight would make sense, taking elements from Maguire’s, Garfield’s, and Holland’s eras as the web-slinger, not to mention the Spider-Verse films and multiple cartoon series.
LEGO City
LEGO City Undercover was and still is a criminally underrated game that didn’t rely upon any existing fanbase to enjoy in its entirety. Originally a Wii U release, meaning that it wouldn’t have sold particularly well, it then saw a wider release to consoles that people actually owned. The game is centred around super-cop Chase McCain unravelling a criminal conspiracy that centres around the metropolis of LEGO City.
Referencing classic crime films and playing into and against the classic tropes that come with them, Undercover had all you could want from an expanded open-world LEGO® game and then some. While a prequel did release for the 3DS, I’ve been craving a full-blown home-console return, maybe in a different setting, with an out-of-retirement plot focus. The sales for a game like this aren’t as predictable as the franchise-based nature of what TT Games focuses on, meaning we might never see an original game again. I’d commit whatever LEGO based crime needed to see Chase McCain come back.
