Soon after being elected to produce Warner’s The LEGO Batman Movie, dynamic duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller assured fans that the 2017 animated pic would be chock-full of Easter eggs and subtle nods to the Caped Crusader’s legacy.
Those references extend far beyond witty one-liners, after director Chris McKay took to Twitter today to reveal that Star Wars alum Billy Dee Williams will voice Two-Face, a performance that the actor essentially lucked out on almost 30 years ago. Back then, Williams was cast as district attorney Harvey Dent for Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman film, when Burton famously told Williams that he’d get the chance to play the iconic villain in the sequel and, well, we all know how that turned out.
However, thanks to The LEGO Batman Movie, Billy Dee Williams will get his moment, after McKay confirmed that the actor will lend his vocal chords to the role of Two-Face in 2017.
He does https://t.co/sf1x4NtRzS
— Chris McKay (@buddboetticher) November 30, 2016
The fact that it has taken so long for Chris McKay to unveil Two-Face’s involvement, coupled with the fact that the rogue attorney has been largely absent from the movie’s marketing pizzaz, leads us to believe that this is more of a cameo role than anything else. Even still, Billy Dee Williams’ connection to the Batman lore runs deep, and long-time fans of the World’s Greatest Detective will no doubt be pleased to see that the actor’s pipe dream has finally been fulfilled.
With Two-Face waiting in the wings, we know that the Joker (voiced by Zach Galifianakis) will act as the primary villain in The LEGO Batman Movie on February 10, 2017. It’s the second step in Warner’s shared LEGO universe, too, what with the LEGO Ninjago Movie on course for September 22, 2017, along with a direct sequel to The LEGO Movie due on February 8, 2019.