Last year, it was announced that the LEGO Toy Company would be shifting their film productions from Warner Bros to Universal Studios. Now Donna Langley of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, and Jill Wilfert of Entertainment of the LEGO Group, have officially struck a five-year partnership between the two companies.
LEGO initially started to make major theatrical release films with Warner Bros. in 2014, releasing the massively commercial and critical success that was The LEGO Movie. Since then, the studio developed three more theatrical animated films based around their iconic toy franchise, including LEGO Batman, LEGO Ninjago and a sequel to the original film. Unfortunately, despite LEGO Batman‘s success, Ninjago and LEGO Movie 2 both underperformed financially, leading Warner Bros to lose faith in the property. Fortunately, Donna Langley is looking forward to the upcoming plans for the franchise with Universal, stating that “To partner with such an iconic brand that remains relevant and is constantly evolving allows for creativity in storytelling.”
Granted, this deal might make fans wonder if Universal’s new LEGO movies will continue from the characters and world established by Warner Bros, or just stick with making LEGO-themed parodies. Plenty of Universal franchises have received the LEGO treatment in the form of toys, video games and even cameos within the Warner Bros movies like Jurassic Park and the Universal Monsters. All that in mind, we could potentially get a LEGO movie based on Fast and Furious or some of the other big Universal property, so hopefully future LEGO films will still be awesome.