Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is a big ol’ smorgasbord of tributes to the caped crusader’s long history, but it’s not just full of references to Bruce Wayne’s many stories. Developer TT Games has stuffed the blocky open-world brawler with nods to plenty of other pieces of pop culture, including other video games, movies, TV shows, and memes. The game is out in early access so folks are already playing the game and sharing clips. Here are some of the funniest ones we’ve seen thus far.
Five Nights at Freddy’s
‘Five Nights at Freddy's’ Easter egg in the new ‘LEGO Batman’ game 🐻 🦇
pic.twitter.com/KXg8xYrdJq— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) May 20, 2026
Batman stumbles upon an animatronic bear that wants to eat him, seemingly referencing the Five Nights at Freddy’s horror series in which animatronic bears eat people.
American Psycho
American Psycho Card Reference in LEGO Batman Legacy of the Dark Knight
I’m well over 3 hours into this game and I’m totally loving the number references and jokes they’ve put in this game
If you’re a long time Batman fan, I highly recommend checking this one out! pic.twitter.com/ZZjaeiFjrH
— NikTek (@NikTek) May 18, 2026
This one has layers to it. In one scene, Bruce slides a business card onto a desk, and when he walks away, a guy starts to admire the craftsmanship of the block, and asks if it’s eggshell stationary. This is a reference to the business card scene in the 2000 American Psycho movie, which ties back into Batman history because Christian Bale, who stars in the film as Patrick Bateman, also played Batman in the Dark Knight trilogy.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
LEGO BATMAN HAS AN ALWAYS SUNNY REFERENCE!!! pic.twitter.com/r07nwCy21Z
— Lewis 🏳️🌈 | Excited For Embo | SWCLA 2027!! (@devl7552) May 20, 2026
In another layered homage, the Penguin makes a reference to black comedy sitcom It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia when you fight him. He says “so anyway, I started blasting,” referencing the iconic line and meme from the show spoken by Danny DeVito’s character Frank Reynolds. DeVito played Penguin in the 1992 film Batman Returns. It all comes full circle.
Resident Evil 4
‘RESIDENT EVIL 4’ reference in Legacy of the Dark Knight
Bat-Mite has a line and design that references the Merchant from RE4 pic.twitter.com/uFrWkkVKtD
— LEGO Games News (@LEGOTtNewsI) May 20, 2026
Resident Evil 4 gets referenced in Legacy of the Dark Knight, not paying tribute to Leon Kennedy’s amazing roundhouse kicks and wisecracks but rather to the game’s mysterious merchant. Bat-Mite appears in the game and has a design that references RE4’s merchant with a purple bandana on his face, and he even tries to imitate the guy by saying his “What are you buying?” line. Or, he almost does, before saying it’s hard on his vocal chords.
Street Fighter
Another Capcom game reference comes when Batman roughs up Black Mask’s car in what seems to be a tribute to Street Fighter 2’s Bonus Stage in which the player uses their chosen fighter to destroy a car to add points to their high score.
I Think You Should Leave
@subparlover They’re found an I Think You Should Leave reference hidden in LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight 🤣 #gaming #newgames #batman #legobatman #gamingontiktok
There’s an exchange in a diner that references I Think You Should Leave’s “Pay It Forward” sketch, in which a man attempts to buy an enormous amount of food in hopes that the person in front of him in a drive-thru might pay for it. In Legacy of the Dark Knight, a diner patron asks if the restaurant has any food challenges, and the waiter says that if they can eat “55 burgers, 55 shakes, and 55 tacos” they’ll be asked to leave.
Jurassic Park
One of the more subtle references happens during the Poison Ivy boss fight. There’s a scene that shows the two heads of the villain’s snapdragon pet snapping at each other in a way that seems to be a shot-for-shot homage to the raptors’ entrance in the kitchen segment from Jurassic Park.
Michael Caine’s posts
Someone at TT Games is extremely online, because they had Legacy of the Dark Knight’s version of Batman’s butler and crime-fighting assistant Alfred quote one of Batman Begins actor Michael Caine’s memetic tweets from 2024:
Why do we fall?
So we can learn to pick ourselves up.
Batman Begin— Michael Caine (@themichaelcaine) August 19, 2024
These are just a handful of the references packed into Legacy of the Dark Knight, and some of the others are probably weird, obscure deep cuts only identifiable to people with more than 12 hours of screen time per day.
