I adore The LEGO Movie, and I have to admit I was a little bummed that Phil Lord & Christopher Miller weren’t returning to direct The LEGO Movie Sequel. While they remained on board to work on the story and produce, it now looks like they’re fully on board to do a rewrite, and they’re taking the sequel in an incredibly interesting direction.

At the press day for The LEGO Ninjago Movie, Christina Radish spoke to producers Dan Lin and Chris McKay and learned some new details about The LEGO Movie Sequel. The upcoming film will deal with gender issues with regards to how boys play versus how girls play.  The first film was from the "perspective" of Finn, an 8-year-old boy, so everything you saw in the movie was from his imagination.  At the very end, "Duplo" comes down to destroy them, and those are from his little sister.  That provides an opportunity not to make the sister the antagonist, but instead to show how she sees the LEGO world.  When you consider how many stories are male-driven and female characters are relegated to supporting roles (even in the first LEGO Movie where Wyldstyle is great, but ultimately Emmet is the hero), I love the opportunity this approach could provide.

Speaking to Lin and McKay, they elaborated on where the sequel is headed, and how it picks up from the events that concluded the last movie:

LIN:  We are going to The LEGO Movie 2. The team is all back together, so it’s [Phil] Lord and [Chris] Miller, myself and Chris McKay. Mike Mitchell is the new voice who’s coming in to direct the movie. Chris and Phil are rewriting the script right now, but we’re in production. We’re picking up where the first movie left us, where the Duplo have now come and they’re attacking Bricksburg. It’s several years later, and you’re going to see the result of that.

For those who are unfamiliar with Duplo, they’re basically LEGO for infants. The blocks are huge so that little kids can’t choke on them, but they’re an introduction to LEGO for children who are so young that they might swallow regular LEGO pieces.

McKAY:  The Duplo represents Finn’s sister, Finn being the little boy from the live-action. The Duplo is her. The man upstairs said, “You’ve gotta play with your sister. That’s the thing you’ve gotta promise me. I’ll let you play with my world, but now you’ve gotta let your sister come in and play with your world.” Now, she’s coming in, and that’s the major thing that the movie is about. What’s different and similar about gender, when a boy plays vs. how a girl plays? What kinds of stories are there? Chris and Phil are super fucking smart and really thoughtful and sensitive writers. The kinds of questions and the interesting ideas that they’re getting into with this movie, it’s going to be like the first LEGO Movie was, where it’s about something else that’s really profound. I’m really excited about where the movie is gonna go because it’s about these things that are actual notions that people have that might even be unconscious biases, where people don’t even realize that that’s the way they’re looking at the world. You can do that in a movie like this, and still have it be a great musical with fun songs, and have action and all of the other crazy things we’re gonna get into with that movie. It’s gonna be a really special movie.

On the one hand, I absolutely love this approach. I think this is a story that’s very much worth telling, especially when gendered approaches can get instilled at such a young age right down to the toys that are available (e.g. the “Where’s Rey?” response to Star Wars: The Force Awakens). That being said, I’m sure Lord and Miller know they’re in precarious territory since there will be hot takes and thinkpieces at the ready if two male writers make the wrong move in trying to talk about how girls play versus boys. But for me, they’ve more than earned the benefit of the doubt.

LIN:  Every one of our movies, so far, have been told from the point of view of one kid’s imagination. The LEGO Movie 2 will be the first one told through two kids’ imaginations – Finn and his sister. It’s going to be really interesting juxtaposing those two different visions.

This is another aspect where The LEGO Movie Sequel could get incredibly interesting. If it’s two different imaginations, then we could have two different kinds of movies where characters change based on who’s playing with them. For example, when Finn plays, Emmet is the hero, but in the eyes of Finn’s sister, Emmet might be something else. This movie cannot get here fast enough.

The LEGO Movie Sequel opens February 8, 2019. Mike Mitchell (Trolls) will direct.