Warner Bros. has unveiled the first trailer for the highly anticipated animated sequel The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part. The follow-up to the smash-hit original movie arrives early next year, but we get our first good look at it thanks to this debut teaser trailer. Trolls director Mike Mitchell steps into the director's chair this time around with co-director Trisha Gum, but Phil Lord and Chris Miller are still involved as producers and co-writers of the follow-up.

This teaser trailer is pretty great, as it builds on the ending of The LEGO Movie to create a post-apocalyptic wasteland of sorts in which Emmet is in full denial of all the terrible things going on (hmm, sounds familiar). The trailer doesn't give away too much of the film's plot, which involves gender dynamics and differences, but there are some solid jokes, great visuals, and you really can't go wrong with a Beastie Boys needle drop.

This project has taken some time to put together. The LEGO Movie co-director Chris McKay was originally set to direct, but he departed when Warner Bros. opted to make The LEGO Batman Movie first so he went to direct that. Then Community alum Rob Schrab signed on to take the helm, but left the project after a year over creative differences, at which point Mitchell came aboard. Lord and Miller also jumped into the film pretty heavily last year after they left Solo: A Star Wars Story, taking a stronger handle on crafting the script, so it'll be interesting to see exactly what kind of movie has been put together. So far, this trailer is a great start.

Check out the LEGO Movie 2 trailer below. Starring Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Channing Tatum, Will Arnett, Jonah Hill, Tiffany Haddish, Stephanie Beatriz, and Arturo Castro, The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part arrives on February 8, 2019.

Producer and The LEGO Batman Movie director Chris McKay previously gave a tantalizing tease of where this sequel goes when we spoke to him last September:

“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.”

Here are a few new images from The LEGO Movie 2:

And here's the official synopsis for The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part:

“The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part” reunites the heroes of Bricksburg in an all new action-packed adventure to save their beloved city. It’s been five years since everything was awesome and the citizens are facing a huge new threat: LEGO DUPLO^® invaders from outer space, wrecking everything faster than they can rebuild. The battle to defeat them and restore harmony to the LEGO universe will take Emmet, Lucy, Batman and their friends to faraway, unexplored worlds, including a strange galaxy where everything is a musical. It will test their courage, creativity and Master Building skills, and reveal just how special they really are.