Bye, Emmet! The ‘Lego Movie 3’ Is Coming, But It Will Look a Bit Different

A prominent producer has confirmed that The Lego Movie 3 is in the works, but changes in the production company mean the next installment in the popular franchise will look (and sound!) a lot different.

Dan Lin, whose production company Lin Pictures co-produced all four Lego movies with Warner Animation Group and others, confirmed that a new Lego movie is on the way while speaking to The Ankler Hot Seat podcast in August 2022. While acknowledging that they’re continuing the franchise, Lin noted that they intend to make some major changes to the existing characters, story, and universe.

“We know we have to switch it up and take to a different art form that’s still true to Lego, we should have some announcements soon,” he said. “I think we’ve reinvented it in a cool way.”

The Lego movie franchise

There are currently four movies in this $1 billion franchise, beginning with The Lego Movie in 2014. That film featured the voice of Chris Pratt as Emmet Brickowski, a Lego minifigure who leads a resistance movement to thwart the evil Lord Business (Will Ferrell), a corporate suit intent on coating the entire city in Kraggle (Krazy Glue). Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Nick Offerman, Alison Brie, Charlie Day, Liam Neeson, and Morgan Freeman also lend their voices.

The first Lego movie was a tremendous success, grossing $468.1 million worldwide. Two video games and an animated television series called Unikitty! followed, as did three more films: The Lego Ninjago Movie (2017); The Lego Batman Movie (2017), and The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019). All were critical and commercial hits, although the Ninjago movie wasn’t as well-received as the others.

Plans for The Lego Movie 3 stalled at Warner Bros. in 2019, most likely because the production company’s 5-year film rights deal with Lego was due to expire at the end of the calendar year. By 2020, Universal Pictures stepped in to acquire those film rights, so any subsequent movies will be produced by that studio instead. However, Warner Bros. still owns the first four films, so Universal has to come up with a whole new, well, everything.

Big changes ahead

A new production company means that means Emmet, Lord Business, Wyldstyle, and the gang are going back into the box for the time being. Instead, Universal will create a brand new story about a different Lego minifigure, but instead of featuring characters like Batman and Superman from the WB universe, they’ll tap into their own movie franchises for pop culture references, cameos, and crossovers. We could see characters from the Madagascar, Fast & Furious, King Kong, Bourne, Jaws, or Jurassic World films, for example.

Another big change could be a switch in the regular CG animation. Screenrant reports that The LEGO Movie 3 will likely be a mixture of animation and live-action.

Any details on the cast and crew?

As of this writing, all details about the plot and cast are being kept tightly under wraps, but we do know that Aaron and Adam Nee are currently attached to direct. The Nee Brothers are best known for their adventure comedy The Lost City (2022) starring Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum.

It’s unlikely that any of the original cast members will return because their characters won’t be featured in the new movie. A possible exception could be Pratt, who plays Owen Grady in the Jurassic World films, but time will tell if the producers will go that route or not.

Release date?

The Lego Movie 3 is still in the early phases of production, so there is no release date at this time. We will update you as soon as new information becomes available. In the meantime, the first Lego movie is currently streaming on Netflix.