Back in early 2014 directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller did the impossible. They managed to take an obvious cash grab movie property and turn it into something amazing. Like the upcoming Emoji Movie, The LEGO Movie had all the makings for a desperate Hollywood flop. No one in their right mind was asking for a movie based on the LEGO toys, and studios had a bad habit of trying to milk every dollar they could out of pre-existing properties, mostly to negative effect. Instead of a dud, we were given a hilarious treat — a heartfelt movie fit for all ages that had the ability to expand to a decent franchise.

Of course, it’s always a big question mark whenever there’s a sequel. Will the filmmakers be able to capture that magic twice? So long as the directors stay on board, fans are usually okay to move forward, but with the impending LEGO Movie 2, we were faced with the realization that Lord and Miller were moving on to bigger things, and therefore would not be around to direct. In their place, Warner Bros announced that Monster House writer and Community director Rob Schrab would be making his animation feature directorial debut with LEGO Movie sequel, fittingly titled The LEGO Movie Sequel. While Schrab’s inexperience in animation was an oh-so-minor sticking point, his experience in comedy wascomforting.

It turns out, it was never meant to be. THR is now reporting that Schrab had parted ways with the production due to “creative differences.” 

In his place, Warner Bros Animation has hired Mike Mitchell, who most recently hit a home run for Dreamworks Animation’s Trolls. While that movie certainly has its charm, I am a bit bothered by Mitchell’s other films such as Shrek Forever After and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked. However, with those particular films, I’d argue the fault lied largely in the script, and so long as the script ends up in prime condition, then we’ll have little to worry about.

For a taste of the director’s previous work, have a look below at one of the numbers from Trolls:

Luckily for us, Lord and Miller also had a hand in the script department, and since their draft, it’s run through a couple hands, including a writer named Matt Fogel. Given that Lord and Miller are also producers, We hope they’ll at least do a quality check on the screenplay before they hit the ground running on the actual animation.

So far, the upcoming LEGO Batman Movie is looking to be another win for the franchise, so this sequel will have some big shoes to fill. Here’s hoping it all turns out for the best!

The LEGO Movie Sequel hits theaters on February 8, 2019!

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SOURCE: THR