Earlier this year, The Lego Movie celebrated its 10-year anniversary. While the franchise was all over the 2010s with spinoffs for that movie’s Batman (as voiced by Will Arnett) and its actual Ninjago toyline, it hasn’t been seen since Lego Movie 2 back in 2019. Part of that can be owed to Warner Bros.’ partnership with Lego ending in 2020, but it sounds like the Danish toy company is preparing to get back into the moviemaking business in the near future.
During a recent Variety interview, Lego’s global entertainment head Jill Wilfert revealed the company was actively developing “a whole range of ideas and concepts” with Universal. The two companies have had a five-year deal going since 2020, but don’t actually have anything to show for it beyond a Lego retelling of the original Jurassic Park back in 2022. Last year, rumors began spinning up about Universal making a live-action/animation hybrid Lego flick, but Wilfert was evasive. Her response to a question about teaming with Netflix could be read as a general, cryptic statement about Lego’s current deal: “At this point, we’re super happy, super focused on what we have going on with Universal.”
What she did say, though, was that Lego may have shot itself in the foot with the WB movies. The four films, she explained, suffered from coming out in a short five-year window—Lego Batman and Ninjago both released in 2017, for example. They weren’t duds, and Wilfert highlighted how their reviews were some “better than the box office might indicate.” Still, she had no trouble admitting it’s “tough” to make movies, hence the pivot away from the silver screen.
TV has been part of Lego’s whole deal for decades, but it really became pronounced once the movies were done. Its Lego Masters reality competition series has been a worldwide hit since 2017 (thanks to its Fox version in the US and country-specific variations), and there’s been plenty of animated series and movies like Lego Monkie Kid and Lego Dreamzzz: Trials of the Dream Chasers for younger audiences. Even if nothing comes of its Universal deal, it seems the Danish toy company will be alright in the end.
Variety’s full interview with Wilfert can be read here.
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