While The LEGO Movie did have a couple of great female characters, including Elizabeth Banks' Wildstyle and Alison Brie's Unikitty, the story was largely driven and largely filled with male characters, including Chris Pratt's Emmet, Will Ferrell's Lord Business, Will Arnett's Batman, Morgan Freeman's Vitruvius and more. As the upcoming sequel moves its way though development, however, it looks like that's one element that will soon be changing.
The LEGO Movie directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller are keeping rather quiet about what we can expect from The LEGO Movie 2, which is expected to come out in a few years, but they have revealed to the BBC that one key thing that will be included in the sequel will be more female characters. The subject came up as the two filmmakers discussed wanting to reach a wide audience with their movie, not wanting to exclude anyone, but instead, rather, have everyone come together and enjoy it. Said Lord, "It's important to us that the movie plays broadly and that we inspire young women as much as we inspire young men."
As the two filmmakers note in the interview, women have been playing second fiddle to men in Hollywood for far, far too long - but the tide does seem to be turning to a certain degree. Lord and Miller cite the incredible success of Frozen as being an example of female-character driven success, but the last few months we have also learned that we will be getting both Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel movies in the coming years and that the main cast of the Ghostbusters reboot will be predominantly women. Obviously the full extent of the problem still isn't resolved (the industry is still sorely lacking in big time female directors), but all of this is steps in the right direction.
The LEGO Movie 2 is sadly still years and years off, as Warner Bros. has dated the film for 2017 - and the truth is that the current status of the project definitely reflects that. While Chris McKay is attached to direct and Phil Lord and Chris Miller are developing the story, the film merely exists in outline form right now, and while having more female characters play bigger roles is definitely part of the plan, everything else about the project is very much flexible and changeable. Said Miller,
"I'm certain [that] many broad elements of it will change by the time the movie comes out because that's the way the way that it works. It's like LEGO itself - you can take it apart and put it back together in a different shape."
You'll be able to see The LEGO Movie 2 in theaters on May 26, 2017, and you can be sure you'll find all of the latest details here as they come rolling in.
