WILL ARNETT

The voice of Lego Batman in three successful movie comedies, the Arrested Development star, 49, expands his relationship with the toy company by taking the reins as host of Lego Masters (Feb. 5 on Fox). The new competition series will feature contestants facing off in intense brick-building challenges until one is crowned Lego Master, winning a prize of $100,000.

What attracted you to Lego Masters? I didn’t want to do reality TV that was trying to make people look bad. This is all about people who are really good at doing something. In this case, it happens to be building with Legos. Their creativity and skill are off the charts.

Can you give an example? On one episode, they had to build a movie moment, something that would tell a story. We had Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who wrote and directed the Lego movies, come in to give advice to the teams, and then help us rate how well the contestants did.

What’s cool about playing Batman in the Lego movies, instead of live action? People ask me all the time, “Would you want to play real Batman?” I’m like, “What? And go through all that, and have to squeeze into the suit?”

Is it true you did Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Lego Movie because you wanted something your kids could see? Yeah. I started making the deal that I would do one for them, one for me. With BoJack Horseman [season six premieres Jan. 31 on Netflix], my kids were like, “Can we watch BoJack?” And I’m like, “Absolutely not.” They’re 9 [Abel] and 11 [Archie]. Then I did Lego, and then my show Flaked—which I’m also like, “No, you can’t watch it.” Then I did Ninja Turtles. It’s worked out really well.