Warner Bros. is certainly having a good day today. It released its extensive upcoming slate of DC films in addition to revealing dates for all three Fantastic Beasts films. Also among these announcements were the dates for the upcoming films in its animated LEGO movie franchise.
Rather disappointingly, it’s not much. For the most part it only confirms what we already know concerning the dates for two of the LEGO movies (LEGO Ninjago in 2016 and LEGO Batman in 2017), but there was one new nugget of information revealed about the upcoming sequel to the first LEGO Movie.
Originally set for May 26, 2017, The LEGO Movie 2 is now slated for release sometime in 2018. As of current, it’s a strong possibility that it’s original release date might be given to LEGO Batman. While a day and month hasn’t been specified for The LEGO Movie 2, it is possible that May 25, 2018 (one of two dates set for two other LEGO films) could end up being the release date for the film. Also, Chris McKay, originally set to direct The LEGO Movie 2, now sits in the director’s chair for LEGO Batman. This now leaves the door wide open for Phil Lord and Chris Miller should they want to return as directors for the sequel.
As for Ninjago, the press release doesn’t pinpoint an exact date, but it was last reported a while back that it was aiming for a September 23, 2016 release date. Unless we are told something different later on, that probably sounds legit for now.
The only remaining mystery now surrounds the other release date for a currently untitled LEGO film: May 24, 2019. What could that date be for? A sequel to either Ninjago or LEGO Batman (assuming they prove successful) or a whole other spinoff film entirely? The possibilities are endless, so we may not know for a while, at least until we are further down the road.
If this news (and other subsequent reports) are of any indication, Warner Animation Group appears very dead-set on building up a lucrative franchise for Warner Bros. They also appear to be taking the smart strategy of using the spinoffs to delve into other genres. Ninjago takes after the fantasy genre, in a setting heavily inspired by Chinese and Japanese mythology and culture, while LEGO Batman will no doubt spoof the ultra-serious nature of it’s title character and even other characters and elements from the Batman comics.
There’s obviously a game plan in action with these dates. It’ll be interesting to see what it is.
What do you think? Any ideas for other genres or characters that the LEGO films could tackle?