With a haul of $468m worldwide, The Lego Movie was one of 2014’s most successful animated movies – and one of its best-loved, for its madcap energy and a surprisingly irreverent tone given it was promoting a toy company.
Its success has prompted no less than three further films: one based on the Ninjago product line, another on the Lego Batman figure voiced by Will Arnett, and an official sequel. The latter has now got an official title – The Lego Movie Sequel – and Rob Schrab attached as director.
It’s Schrab’s first feature film in the director’s chair, following his work on TV comedies like The Sarah Silverman Program, Community and The Mindy Project; he also wrote the animated film Monster House. The first film’s directors, Philip Lord and Christopher Miller, stay on as writers and producers.
The Lego Movie Sequel is pencilled in for a 2018 release, with the Ninjago and Batman films pegged for 2016 and 2017 respectively.
The first film was a surprise omission from the 2015 Oscar nominations, with Big Hero 6 eventually going on to win best animated feature. The film’s theme Everything Is Awesome got a best original-song nomination though, allowing for a live performance at the Oscar ceremony that showered nominees with Lego statuettes as Tegan and Sara, The Lonely Island, ?uestlove and Mark Mothersbaugh performed the track.
