To say that Warner Bros. struck gold with The LEGO Movie in 2014 would be a pretty glaring understatement. Despite the moans and groans directed at the decision to bring the famous toy brand to the big screen in the first place, Chris Miller and Phil Lord’s smart and charming feature raked in almost $500 million worldwide, spawning a bona fide hit.
And so, brick by brick, Warner will be busy expanding its new animated franchise over the next two years, starting with the release of 2017’s The LEGO Batman Movie.
Placing animation supervisor Chris McKay behind the lens for the offshoot, LEGO Batman will once again feature Will Arnett as the Caped Crusader, flanked by Michael Cera (Robin), Rosario Dawson (Batgirl) and Zach Galifianakis as the Clown Prince of Crime.
Providing a status report on how the spinoff is progressing, LEGO Movie producer Roy Lee revealed to Collider that McKay’s feature is “currently being animated right now,” and that “seeing where Batman lives in full LEGO [is something] the audience will love. Gotham City fully rendered in LEGO.”
Beyond that, Warner has also carved out room for a Ninjago standalone film (due September 22, 2017), and Lee noted that fans of the Cartoon Network series will fall in love by the movie’s “huge scope.”
Anyone who knows the series on Cartoon Network will be blown away by the look and feel and huge scope of how we’ve expanded the universe of Ninjago. It’s like seeing The LEGO Movie in a ninja universe.
Following a one-two punch in 2017, The LEGO Movie 2 will hit theaters in the spring of 2018, and though it’s still a ways away, the producer did share some details regarding licensing arrangements.
The first movie we got a lot of cameos, and it’s not that hard to get them to say yes, especially when they already have deals with LEGO. Having Star Wars, you would think would be almost the hardest thing to get, and if we got Star Wars, there’s other things that would be a lot easier.
Chris McKay’s The LEGO Batman Movie gets the ball rolling on February 10, 2017, followed in quick succession by Ninjago (September 22, 2017), and The LEGO Movie 2 on May 18, 2018.
