2014 saw the beginning of a lucrative movie universe at Warner Bros., as The LEGO Movie defied expectations to become a financial and creative hit. But, with the film's ending promising a clash between the Duplo and LEGO worlds, a LEGO Movie sequel was inevitable. Flash forward to today, as the world is anticipating The LEGO Movie Sequel (now officially titled The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part), which sees us returning to the world that started it all. But the road to returning Emmet, Wyldstyle, Batman, Benny, and the countless others involved in the first film's success hasn't been an easy one. Which means, in honor of being less than a week away from everything awesome coming to our eyes and ears once more, it's time to go into what we know so far about The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part! Here, we'll pour out the knowledge of all things LEGO, and make some educated guesses that'll eventually be corrected as time goes on. But for now, this is what to expect.
What Have We Seen From The LEGO Movie 2?
You're in luck! Early June 2018 finally brought us the first full trailer from The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part. It gives us a good look at the post-apocalyptic world that's been brought on by the destructive Duplo, and how oddly Emmet has been handling the changes to everyone's daily life. As can be expected, much of the crew from the original film has to go on an adventure, leading to a lot of crazy laughs.
What Is The LEGO Movie 2's Release Date?
The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part is coming out soon; on February 8, 2019 to be exact. Originally scheduled for May 26, 2017, the film was first bumped to a May 18, 2018 debut, before finally landing on its current window of release. In its current slot, this was supposed to pit the animated sequel in direct competition against Sony's Spider-Man spin-off Silver and Black, as well as the Seth Rogen / Charlize Theron romantic comedy Flarsky. However, with the former hitting some recent snags, and the latter being moved much further along in the year, both potential competitors have been removed from the field. However, that week will also see Taraji P. Henson's What Men Want, horror film The Prodigy and the Liam Neeson starrer Cold Pursuit, so there's a slight possibility that The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part may still see some serious competition at the box office on opening weekend.
What Is The LEGO Movie 2's Rating?
While it was unknown what The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part's rating would be for a long time (because films never get their final rating until right before release) now that the release is upon us, we know that it will be rated PG. The original LEGO Movie, as well as the spin-offs, The LEGO Batman Movie and The LEGO Ninjago Movie, were all handed the PG rating for the action and "rude humor" present in their films, so making a film that broke with the family friendly trend did not seem likely at all, anyway. At the same time, making a G rated film that eschewed the reference based and "rude" humor, as well as any of the action that The LEGO Movie franchise has been known for, seemed just as wrong. So, the PG rating was always a pretty secure bet for The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part.
Who Is The LEGO Movie 2's Director?
Originally, director Chris McKay was going to helm The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, when the film was aiming for its 2017 release date. But, ultimately, this was not meant to be, as McKay was shifted to The LEGO Batman Movie, leaving the spot vacant. Eventually, Rob Schrab, best known as co-writer on Sony's animated film Monster House, and a director on such shows as Community, Parks and Recreation and The Mindy Project, was hired for the duties of bringing this second LEGO Movie to the finish line. It only took two words ("creative differences") to see Schrab leave the project, allowing Trolls director Mike Mitchell to become the current director on record for The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part.
Who Are The LEGO Movie 2's Writers?
Just as the director's chair saw itself subjected to the winds of change, The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part saw several writers move through its writer's room. At first, 2014's early announcement of the film's status, in the wake of The LEGO Movie's surprise success, writers Jared Stern and Michelle Morgan were named as working out the story for the second film. That changed rather quickly, though, as by the end of that same year, Phil Lord and Chris Miller were signed on to write about the future of Bricksburg. Some reports, however, have told us that Bojack Horseman creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg was brought in for some re-writes before the film went into active production, but if that is the case, he's not currently credited for any work on the movie.
What The LEGO Movie 2 Will Be About
Considering the revolving door of writers and directors in The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part's path to production, it's no surprise that no concrete story was made known to the public at large for quite some time. Now, though, we know that the movie will see LEGO Duplo invaders from outer space come along to tear things down faster than they can be rebuilt. And, there are other things that we do know will be present in the film.
These details include the fact that Finn and his sister from The LEGO Movie's live-action segments will be back. Other than that, various notes have talked about Finn's LEGO sets and his sister's Duplo sets, seen about to go to war against each other at the end of The LEGO Movie, will both be represented in the film. There were also previous comments about how The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part will tackle the subject of how boys play versus how girls play, adding a flavor of gender commentary to the film's more human side. Don't be afraid that the film will forget to have fun though, as plenty of space action and musical comedy are bring promised to find their way into this sequel.
When The LEGO Movie 2 Will Take Place
In order to track with the real world time gap between The LEGO Movie and The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, this new film will take place five years after the first film's resolution. This also plays into what the film will be about, as Finn's adolescence has been mentioned since the first phases of the project as a subject of interest to the writers. The time jump would put Finn in his early to mid-teens, with his sister most likely being in the last stages of early childhood, between 1 ½ and 5 years old, the prescribed time frame stated on the Duplo block sets.
Finn And His Sister
With the vague details that are available, and the time gap in play, The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part looks like it could play with more live-action sequences than The LEGO Movie ever did. With Finn and his sister being important characters in the film's story, we'll not only see more of Finn, but actually get to meet his sister. Not being seen, but alluded to, in the first film, her Duplo building set was seen threatening the world of Emmet, Wyldstyle, and the rest of the Bricksburg crew. This intersection will set up not only the story of how Finn and his sibling play with different bricks and mindsets, but it also sets up just what might happen in the stop motion animated world of the LEGO Movie cast. Originally played by Jadon Sand in The LEGO Movie, the young actor is set to reprise the role of Finn in The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part. A look at the movie's IMDB page tells us that Finn's sister will be named Bianca, and played by Brooklynn Prince.
Duplo
In our world, the Duplo building system is the LEGO system's younger cousin, specified as being made for children between 1 ½ and 5 years old. But in the world of The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, these soft spoken creatures have presumably thrown down the gauntlet and threatened the intricate world of Bricksburg. So, if the ending to The LEGO Movie is any indication, there may have been five years of war between the Duplo and LEGO worlds, with bricks and tempers being lost in the midst. Also, due to a Duplo block usually being thicker and bigger than LEGO pieces, that war may be something akin to a monster movie, as the larger scaled aggressors of Finn's sister's design may have found it easy to terrorize the smaller scaled Emmet and company.
Emmet & Wyldstyle
If you wanted to catalog which characters from The LEGO Movie would return for The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, you'd probably be here all day. However, if there were two characters that could be deemed absolutely essential to return for The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, it'd have to be Emmet and Wyldstyle - voiced by Chris Pratt and Elizabeth Banks, respectively. This theory is supported even more, considering the fact that the difference between female and male play mechanics is supposed to factor into The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part's story rather importantly. If we were to guess how Emmet and Wyldstyle would be affected by this, we'd say that Emmet's methods of dealing with the Duplo will be more aggressive and vehicle / weapons based, while Wyldstyle will want to engage in more creative and personal efforts with their would-be invaders. In other words, the newly minted couple of the LEGO world may be headed for rocky shores. Apologies to anyone who spent all this time creating a proper ship name (Emmstyle? Wyldmet?) for these two.
Returning Characters
Emmet and Wyldstyle are clearly our main returning characters in The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, and there are quite a few other cast members scheduled to come back for the new film as well. As of this moment, the recurring cast members listed on the film's IMDB page, outside of Chris Pratt and Elizabeth Banks, are Will Arnett, who is coming back to reprise his role as Batman, Channing Tatum, who's bringing Superman back to the LEGO fold, Jonah Hill as Green Lantern, Alison Brie as Unikitty, Charlie Day as Benny the spaceman, Will Ferrell as Finn and Bianca's dad in the live action sequences and voicing President Business, and Nick Offerman as Metal Beard. It's not impossible for others to return as well, but seeing as how no one else has been confirmed yet, we'll just have to wait and see what the film holds.
New Characters
Anyone who enjoys a sequel knows that if The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part is going to do well, it needs to add something new to the playset. This, of course, means that there's going to be a need for new characters in this world, and we do have some specifics on who these players joining the game will be. To start off, Girls Trip star Tiffany Haddish is going to be playing one of them, as she was the first newly minted cast member of The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part's company. Her Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi rules the Systar System and plays a part in the new Duplo invasion. She's also, notably, not a normal LEGO or Duplo figure, as she usually presents as a brightly colored pile of bricks which can change shape radically at a moment's notice. This character is also used to set off the larger musical aspects of the sequel, which should be a lot of fun to watch.
The trailer introduces us to a new character played by Stephanie Beatriz of Brooklyn Nine-Nine fame, Sweet Mayhem. Mayhem comes to Bricksburg on the hunt for the fiercest leader, and ends up kidnapping the franchise's best known characters...with the exception of Emmet, who's then forced to go on a mission to save them. We're not yet sure what she intends to do with these characters, or the fierce leader she was looking for, either, for that matter, but right now she looks to be the main adversary of the movie. Those of you who enjoy it when SNL alums team up on the big screen should be happy to know that Maya Rudolph has joined the film as Finn and Bianca's mom, which will reunite her with Will Ferrell. The only other new character listed on The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part's IMDB page is someone named Ice Cream Cone, who will be voiced by Richard Ayoade (The IT Crowd, The Watch).
Well, this is everything we currently know about The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, and while it's a good start on the nitty gritty details of the movie, it's certainly a good thing that the family comedy is due out soon so we can all finally get the full adventure into our eager eyeballs!
