LEGO Movie Boss Admits Major Mistake They Made With the Franchise

The LEGO Movie boss had to admit one major mistake they made with the franchise and all the spinoffs. Variety had an interview with Jill Wilfert where they tackled all kinds of topics in animation. When the topic of the how many LEGO movies they released after the first entry came up, the head of global entertainment for the company admitted it might have all been a bit too sudden. Wilfert said, "In hindsight, we would probably say we had too many films too close together." Now, it's worth pointing out that almost all of these spinoffs including The Lego Batman Movie, The Lego Ninjago Movie, and the original film's sequel drew good reviews. But, saturating the market may have led to some diminishing returns.

"All those movies did get good reviews. If you even look back to Lego 2 the reviews were better than the box office might indicate," Wilfert recalled. "I think people that did see it really did enjoy it. But really, in the film industry, it's tough. I think you have to bring something unexpected to the table. And for us, going through that timeframe we felt like it was the right time to maybe take a little bit of a pause, re-evaluate what we're doing.

"In addition to the films we also have been very active in the serialized content space, so we continue to create content tied to these properties," she added. "So we really at that point focused on continuing to fuel our franchises with animation and then go into a new space with more of reality style television with "Lego Masters" which has been hugely successful for us.

LEGO Masters Dominating On Fox

Interestingly enough, the pandemic has given LEGO a chance to reevaluate some thing. One of the discoveries was that live-action approaches can work just as well as animated movies. LEGO Masters has become a mainstay of the FOX lineup on broadcast television. There have been multiple seasons of the show and LEGO Masters was recently renewed before the most recent season even got started. Needless to say both the toy company and FOX are looking to keep that partnership going for a while. 

Wilfert told Variety, "In addition to the films we also have been very active in the serialized content space, so we continue to create content tied to these properties. So we really at that point focused on continuing to fuel our franchises with animation and then go into a new space with more of reality style television with "Lego Masters" which has been hugely successful for us."

"With Will Arnett at the helm, Lego Masters has become a foundational property of Fox's robust unscripted slate and a fast-growing franchise on our schedule," Fox Entertainment  president of unscripted programming, Allison Wallach previously said. "This upcoming season is its biggest yet, with the most amazing brick challenges and creative builders ever, and we are delighted to reward Will, Endemol Shine North America, Tuesday's Child, Plan B Entertainment and the Lego Group with this milestone season five renewal to give fans more incredible Lego builds."

Want To Revisit The LEGO Movie: The Second Part?

Warner Bros. has a synopsis: "The much-anticipated sequel to the critically acclaimed, global box office phenomenon that started it all, The LEGO® Movie 2, reunites the heroes of Bricksburg in an all new action-packed adventure to save their beloved city.  It's been five years since everything was awesome and the citizens are facing a huge new threat: LEGO DUPLO® invaders from outer space, wrecking everything faster than they can rebuild. The battle to defeat them and restore harmony to the LEGO universe will take Emmet, Lucy, Batman and their friends to faraway, unexplored worlds, including a strange galaxy where everything is a musical. It will test their courage, creativity and Master Building skills, and reveal just how special they really are."

"Reprising their starring roles from the first film are Chris Pratt as Emmet, Elizabeth Banks as Lucy (aka Wyldstyle), Will Arnett as LEGO BatmanTM, Nick Offerman as Metal Beard, and Alison Brie as Unikitty.  They are joined by Tiffany Haddish, Stephanie Beatriz, and Arturo Castro as, respectively, new characters Queen Watevra Wa-Nabi, Sweet Mayhem and Ice Cream Cone."

Do you think there were too many LEGO Movies? Let us know down in the comments!