Exclusive: A New Lego Movie Is Happening, Will Only Hire BIPOC Directors
A new Lego Movie is underway.
This article is more than 2 years old
The Lego Movie was a massive success back in 2014 and subsequent installments in the franchise have done a good job at the box office. It is clear that the series is one that has lots of potential, and now that Universal is taking the reins of the property, it is obvious that they want to figure out the best way to capitalize on the audience’s love of this wild and wacky world of building blocks and tiny toys.
Giant Freakin Robot has managed to learn some crucial information about this newest installment in the Lego Movie franchise. Thanks to one of our trusted and proven insider sources, we have learned that the first movie in the partnership with Universal will be a brand new film that will not be referencing any of the prior entries in the series. The studio is also specifically looking at BIPOC directors to helm this newest take on the brand and its universe.
There is a lot to pick apart regarding this major update with the Lego Movie series. Obviously, Universal won’t be referencing things from the previous movies since a lot of those films relied on utilizing Warner Bros. properties and characters to populate their world. Universal doesn’t want to pay to license those characters so it makes sense to abandon them in favor of original ideas. Of course, it is very possible and even likely that Universal will want to take the same approach with their exhaustive library of titles and characters. Get ready to see some Jaws the Revenge and Fast & Furious references! Well, maybe not those specific entries but definitely some notable flicks from Universal’s storied legacy.
The other big piece of news here has to do with the new Lego Movie being helmed by a BIPOC director. We were unable to learn exactly why this hiring approach was being taken by Universal, but our assumption is that the film could be featuring characters that are BIPOC and the studio wants a representative hire behind the camera in order to ensure authenticity. We don’t have any information on the script right now, but it does look like Universal is committed to a BIPOC director for their first go-around with the property.
It is going to be interesting to see just what kind of narrative tactic Universal decides to explore with their Lego Movie. Will it be something along the lines of the original film which acknowledges the fiction world of the Legos and how it is part of our own collective imagination? Or will it treat itself as a completely self-contained story like The Lego Batman Movie? Will it be a riff on a specific film franchise like that entry? Universal certainly has loads of properties it could spin into Lego versions. The question is whether or not audiences would be on board with such a take.
Regardless, it looks like the next Lego Movie is going to be ramping up its development very soon. Once a director is locked in, we can expect the project to start gaining real momentum and we will probably gain a better understanding of the eventual plot.
