‘The Lego Movie’: Warner Bros. Taps Chris McKay For The Sequel

The Lego Movie sequel has officially found its director.

Although Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller tackled the first installment of the budding franchise, apparently the filmmakers won’t return for the proposed follow-up. Apparently the guys are currently busy putting the finishing touches on 22 Jump Street and developing the Last Man on Earth TV series.

Since Lord and Miller won’t return to direct The Lego Movie 2, the boys and girls at Warner Bros. had to find someone else to get the follow-up on the right cinematic track. According to Deadline, the studio recently tapped director Chris McKay to put the project together.

If that name doesn’t ring a bell, then you probably haven’t spent too much of your free time watching Adult Swim over the past few years. Not only is McKay responsible for directly the delightfully deranged series Moral Orel, he also helped out with the popular show Robot Chicken.

Fans who are beyond worried that Chris won’t know what to do with the Lego Movie sequel shouldn’t spend too much time biting their nails over it. Cinema Blend points out that McKay served as an animation co-director on the first flick, which means he knows a thing or two about bringing this universe to life.

Besides, it’s unlikely that Warner Bros. would give the Lego Movie follow-up to just anyone on the lot. The studio is very interested in building this series into an insane money-making franchise, which means they need to keep the quality exceptionally high. Handing this flick to an inexperienced filmmaker definitely wouldn’t help their cause.

In case you haven’t heard, The Lego Movie made a ton of money for the folks at Warner Bros. Although it arrived during a notoriously slow time of the year for movies, the family-friendly flick brought home an impressive $227 million in the US.

Foreign totals aren’t bad, either. According to Box Office Mojo, Lord and Miller’s latest animated endeavor grossed around $135 million in receipts. Not surprisingly, the studio is eager to get a sequel off the ground and into theaters around the world as soon as humanly possible.

Unless something happens between now and then, The Lego Movie 2 should hit the big screen in 2017. Writers Michelle Morgan and Jared Stern are presently working on the script for the feature. With the release date several years down the road, Chris McKay has plenty of time to fashion a sequel that will please fans of the original.