New LEGO Movie to Be Live-Action and Animation Hybrid From The Lost City Directors

A few years ago, LEGO licensed their film rights over to Universal after releasing three popular films with Warner Bros. Animation. Phil Lord and Chris Miller produced The LEGO Movie, The LEGO Batman Movie, and The LEGO Movie, and fans have been wondering what's next for the franchise. Last year, producer Dan Lin appeared on The Ankler's Hot Seat podcast, and teased the next film under Universal will be a complete reinvention of the franchise. According to a new report from Variety, The Lost City directors Aaron Nee and Adam Nee are set to tackle the next LEGO film, which is expected to be a live-action hybrid.

"This is especially true of the Nee brothers, who insiders said have a deal at Universal to develop a new hybrid live-action animation film around the Lego franchise (that pact was signed long before the strike). Universal signed a five-year partnership with the Lego Group in 2020 to produce new films and series based on the toys," Variety explains. 

"We know we have to switch it up and take to a different art form that's still true to LEGO," Lin said last year. "We should have some announcements soon… I think we've reinvented it in a cool way."

What Happened To The LEGO Batman Movie 2?

A sequel The LEGO Batman Movie was put into development soon after the first film was released, but it never went into production, which could have something to do with Universal acquiring the rights. Earlier this year, the full plot for The LEGO Batman Movie 2 was released.

Speaking with UPROXX, director Chris McKay talked about how the follow-up would have brought in the Justice League and crossed over with another major franchise. He shared, "We had a really fun script with Dan Harmon and Michael Waldron, wrote a really fun kind of Superfriends. The sequel would've been a quasi Superfriends movie and the structure was going to be a sort of Godfather II kind of thing with Batman and the Justice League facing a modern-day problem, Lex Luthor and OMAC, while at the same time flashing back to the reasons why Batman and the Justice League – and in particular, Superman – have bad blood."

He continued, "It was going to explore Superman and Batman's relationship in a very different way than you've ever seen it portrayed, including Superman's alienation from humanity and how hard it is to truly be friends, real friends, for years. It was ultimately going to answer the question: How do you become Super-friends. And there was going to be a crossover with a major franchise that can only happen in a LEGO movie."

How do you feel about the next LEGO movie being a live-action hybrid? Tell us in the comments.