The LEGO Movie 2

Warner Bros. has done a little release date-shuffling, moving a few of their upcoming films around — most notably (and perhaps disappointingly) with The LEGO Movie 2, which was originally set to hit theaters in 2018 and will now arrive nine months later in 2019. The good news is that we still have two new LEGO Movie spinoffs coming in 2017, and Ben Affleck’s Live By Night will now hit theaters a bit earlier than expected.

One of the most impressive feats The LEGO Movie pulled off was the inclusion of so many characters from different franchises, like DC and Star Wars. Where else are you going to see Batman hanging out with Han Solo? It looks like the sequel may bring another fan favorite franchise on board, as The LEGO Movie 2 director Rob Schrab is hinting at the presence of one very famous Doctor.

You know the drill by now: everything is awesome because we have some LEGO movie news! Following the massive success of The LEGO Movie, Warner Bros. has been developing a slew of follow-ups in their quickly growing franchise, including a sequel and a handful of spinoffs. But when will we see the next installments in this new franchise? WB has just revealed some release dates to brighten your day.

The LEGO Movie proved audiences’ appetite for charming, mildly subversive animated movies about talking toys. Now Warner Bros. is testing that appetite with a whole line of LEGO movies. There already announced Ninjago film in 2016, a Lego Batman Movie in 2017, and The Lego Movie 2 in 2018. Per The Hollywood Reporter, that onslaught will also includes a fourth film, a LEGO spinoff titled The Billion Brick Race, which will be co-written and directed by Forgetting Sarah Marshall and The Muppets’ Jason Segel.

Although Phil Lord and Chris Miller aren’t returning to direct the LEGO Movie sequel, the duo will stay on as executive producers and are writing the screenplay for the project. We’ve been wondering who might be awesome enough to direct the sequel, which has been given the difficult task of living up to its predecessor, and now we have an answer: Rob Schrab, known best for directing episodes of former NBC series Community.

Originally, ‘The LEGO Movie’ writing and directing duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller planned to act solely as producers on the sequel. But that’s changed, and the pair will now write the screenplay (though they are still not directing), as well as produce the sequel and its planned spin-offs. Lord and Miller have previously revealed little about ‘The LEGO Movie 2,’ but in a new interview they’ve opened up about why they decided to write the script, and deliver a few details about the sequel as well as the LEGO Ninjago and Batman films.

We’ve seen Batman envisioned time and again on screens big and small, and yet it took a tiny LEGO version of the character to take us by surprise with Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s hilarious take on the character in this year’s ‘The LEGO Movie.’ Voiced by Will Arnett, this version of Batman lovingly satirized the Caped Crusader. The character was such a hit that we’re getting a spinoff in 2017 ahead of the ‘LEGO Movie’ sequel, and the writers have dropped some details about what we can expect.

One of the most delightful (and most successful) films of 2014 was ‘The LEGO Movie,’ which offered directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller a world filled with creative possibilities. Two of our favorite characters in the first film were Wyldstyle and Princess Unikitty, which were the only two leading female characters. Not to knock ‘The LEGO Movie,’ but I'm just saying: based on the strength of those characters alone and the vast possibilities in the LEGO-verse, why not have more lady LEGO characters? Lord and Miller are aware of this, which is why there will definitely be more female characters in the sequel.

Everything really is awesome in the world of LEGO. After the success of Warner Bros.' 'The LEGO Movie,' the studio quickly signed off on 'The LEGO Movie 2' for a 2017 release. But now, with more than two years until the sequel, two more LEGO movies have been dated!

'The LEGO Movie' was a huge, huge success for both Warner Bros. and LEGO (over $225 million and the highest-grossing movie of the year, so far) and both parties moved quickly to make sure 'The LEGO Movie 2' was happening. That's the good news. The bad news is that it will be happening without Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who wrote and directed the original.