After receiving criticism for the serious dearth of female characters in The Lego Movie, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and executive producer Chris McKay all promised there would be more women and girls in the sequel. Back in 2014, Lord said “It’s important to us that the movie plays broadly and that we inspire young women as much as we inspire young men.” McKay told the Daily Mail, “I’m not sure our movie passes the Bechdel test entirely and I think that it’s important.” These kinds of open-minded, self-aware, non-defensive responses to criticisms regarding representation are unfortunately rare, and they’re heartening to hear.
Even better, though, is that they’re following through on those ideas. In an interview with Collider, McKay and fellow producer Dan Lin revealed the plot of the sequel. And from the sound of it, it’s all about gender.
Lin says the sequel will take place a few years after the first movie, and now DUPLO, the LEGO line for toddlers, has invaded Bricksburg.
According to McKay, the Duplo represent the younger sister of Finn, the little boy from the live-action section of The Lego Movie. Their father is forcing Finn to let his sister play with him.
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.
If you’re a regular reader of this site, you know that unconscious biases are one of our #1 subjects of discussion. (Why yes, we are fun at parties.) The conversation around the way toys are gendered has been enjoying a very public moment, and I can’t wait to see what this team does when they address it head-on.
(via Collider, image: Warner Bros)
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