Brick by brick, Emmet fights the system.
The LEGO Movie, released in 2014, was a runaway success at the time of its release, grossing close to half a billion dollars worldwide and spawning a film franchise that now includes two spinoffs: The Lego Batman Movie and The Lego Ninjago Movie. But beyond its jokes and bright animation, what makes the film endure is its deeper meta commentary about creativity and LEGOs themselves, about the joy of unstructured play, and the importance in breaking rules once you've mastered them.
The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, due out early next year, is the first direct sequel to Emmet and Wyldstyle's adventure. If the trailers are any indication, this movie will be as funny and self-referential as the first one. Here's what we know about The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part.
1. The release date is soon
The release date for The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part is February 8, 2019. This is right in the middle of "dump month," where studios typically release their smaller, weaker films, which they know won't be up for award contention.
In The LEGO Movie 2's case, however, this might be strategic. It will be competing against What Men Want--the gender-switched What Women Want remake--and Cold Pursuit, the latest Liam Neeson action flick. This near guarantees it a strong opening, especially with families and young kids.
2. The old gang is back together
Every major actor from the first film is in the sequel, including Chris Pratt as Emmet (and new character Rex Dangervest), Elizabeth Banks as Wyldstyle, and Will Arnett as Batman.
Morgan Freeman, who played Vitruvius, has not been announced for the sequel, but there's good reason for that if you saw the first film.
Joining them will be Stephanie Beatriz, who voices antagonist Sweet Mayhem, and Tiffany Haddish, who voices antagonist Queen Watevra Wa-Nabi.
3. The old filmmakers are back too
The creative thrust behind the original LEGO Movie were Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who wrote and directed the film. Prior to this, they wrote and directed the animated adaptation of Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. They are infamous for getting fired from the Solo: A Star Wars Story project due to "creative differences" and being replaced with Ron Howard.
This freed them up to work again on The LEGO Movie 2; they are credited as co-writers. One of the producers on the first LEGO movie, Dan Lin, has returned for the sequel. And the director for The LEGO Batman Movie, Chris McKay, is a producer as well.
4. The script went through rewrites
Writing the script for The LEGO Movie 2 began in 2014, with Jared Stern (The Internship) and Michelle Morgan (Girl Most Likely). Afterwards, Lord and Miller, who wrote the first movie, wrote a first draft for the sequel. Raphael Bob-Waksburg (BoJack Horseman) did a rewrite of that. And after being fired from Star Wars and returning to The LEGO Movie, Lord and Miller did another rewrite to top it all off.
5. The massive toy lines are incoming
On the most cynical basic level, these LEGO movies are glorified, feature-length toy commercials. In fact, if you go to the official LEGO website, you can get a sneak peek at all the upcoming playsets, which will no doubt coincide with the movie's release. We have to admit, Rex's Rex-treme Offroader looks pretty dang cool.
6. Invasion of the DUPLOs
At the end of the first LEGO film, DUPLO bricks (the bigger, more toddler-friendly version of LEGO bricks) invade the world. It could have worked as a non-canon throwaway gag, but instead, The LEGO Movie 2 builds off it.
From the trailer, it seems that five years have passed since the end of the first movie. And because of the invasion, the characters now live in a post-apocalyptic Mad Max-inspired wasteland. Everything is decidedly NOT awesome, though Emmet still keeps his optimism.
7. A brief holiday respite
If you need a little something to tide you over until February, you should watch the short holiday special online, which doubles as a trailer for the upcoming film. In it, Emmet tries to spread some merry cheer as the world burns around him. Even in Apocalypseburg, some traditions never die.
8. How girls and boys play
According to the filmmakers, this new movie is going to deal with gender differences. How do boys play? How do girls play? And what assumptions do they make about each others' likes and dislikes? In an interview with Collider, producer Chris McKay had this to say:
"What’s different and similar about gender, when a boy plays vs. how a girl plays? What kinds of stories are there?... I’m really excited about where the movie is gonna go because it’s about these things that are actual notions that people have that might even be unconscious biases, where people don’t even realize that that’s the way they’re looking at the world."
9. The Systar system?
The big twist of the first LEGO movie is that it's all a big game of pretend by a young boy; the Man Upstairs is his father, who wants his son to stop taking apart, mixing, and "ruining" his LEGO sets.
In the movie's trailer, Emmet and Wyldstyle travel to the Systar system (Systar? Sister? Get it?) This new film is probably going to be about the boy's sister, and how he learns to play with her rather than apart from her.
10. A dual point of view
According to McKay, this movie will have two perspectives: "Every one of our movies, so far, have been told from the point of view of one kid’s imagination. The LEGO Movie 2 will be the first one told through two kids’ imaginations--Finn [ the boy] and his sister. It’s going to be really interesting juxtaposing those two different visions."
Expect to see a tearful reconciliation. And expect sales of LEGO's girl toy line, LEGO Friends, to shoot through the roof.
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