LEGO Extended Universe: Wave One

Wave One of the LEGO Extended Universe (LEU) is a series of American computer-animated films produced by Warner Animaton Group based on Lego construction toys. The phase began in 2014 with the release of The Lego Movie and concluded in October 2022 with the release of first season of LEGO's Girls Rule. Dan Lin and Roy Lee have been the main producers of the franchise and have produced all the films along with some additional producers. The six films grossed over $2.7 billion at the global box office and received generally positive critical and public response.

Development
Warner Bros. Pictures obtained the film rights from LEGO to make an original film and greenlit the film with an anticipated 2014 release date, with Phil Lord and Christopher set to write and direct. The Australian studio Animal Logic, the same studio that did the animation for other Warner Bros. films such as Happy Feet (2006) and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010) was hired to provide the animation, which was expected to comprise 80%. of the movie.

In March 2012, Lord and Miller revealed the film's working title, Lego: The Piece of Resistance. For April 2012, Warner Bros. scheduled the film's release on February 28, 2014, a date that later changed to February 7, 2014. Following the success of The Lego Movie, Warner Bros. greenlit several Lego movies produced including The Lego Ninjago Movie for September 23, 2016, The Lego Batman Movie for September 10, 2017 followed by The Lego Movie 2 to be released in May 2018. On 2015, the sequel was officially titled The Lego Movie Sequel. in March, Warner Bros. confirmed a third spin-off film called The Billion Brick Race, adjusting its release for Summer 2019 and on April 20, The Lego Ninjago Movie was delayed to September 22, 2017 with Storks (2016) assuming the film's original release date.

In February 2016, Warner Bros. adjusted the release schedule again, moving The Lego Movie Sequel to May 26, 2017 and The Lego Ninjago Movie to September 14, 2018, keeping The Lego Batman Movie release date in 2017 and adjusting The Billion Brick Race to May 25, 2019. In 2018, a fourth spin-off of The Lego Movie and a untitled sequel to The Lego Batman Movie were announced, both booked for 2022. In March 2018, The Billion Brick Race's release date was moved to August 2, 2019.

In December 2019, the original established contract expired, but Warner Bros. announced that they were already in negotiations to redistribute the next film properties based on Lego toys thanks to the financial and critical success of the franchise. In April 2020, a 9-year limited film deal was signed between The Lego Group and Warner Bros., with full distribution rights to the franchise. Warner Bros. announced in December 2020 that the fourth spin-off, titled, Lego Dimensions would premiere in September 2022, being a super crossover that would reunite the majority of the cast of the previous films in a story arc. Some outlets compared the move positively to the established Marvel Cinematic Universe, by crossovering all the franchises after their preview. Warner Bros. clarified in a press release that the shared nature of the universe would be taken into account in subsequent installments, and the franchise was officially titled "LEGO Extended Universe" at the launch of HBO Max in May 2020.

By February 2021, Warner Bros. and The Lego Group were developing original television series for the streaming service, which focused on supporting characters from the LEU films up to that point. At the end of 2021, the development of a series derived from The Lego Batman Movie with Chris Mckay at the helm began to be rumored, which ended up being Girls Rule. Also in 2021, the name "Wave One" was revealed. to name the set of published media for the franchise, from The Lego Movie in 2014 to The Lego Dimensions Movie and Girls Rule in 2022.

Films
See also: LEGO Extended Unviverse


 * Note: Only five films were released in IMAX theaters; These include The Lego Movie, The Lego Batman Movie, The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, The Billion Brick Race, and The Lego Dimensions Movie. The Lego Ninjago Movie was originally planned for an IMAX release, but it was canceled and only received non-IMAX submissions.

Timeline
During the production of the films, he lined up some of his films' stories with references to each other, though at the time they had no long-term plan for a likely shared universe timeline. The Lego Movie Sequel is set 3 1/2 years after the events of The Lego Movie, and shortly after the events of The Lego Batman Movie according to comments made by Alfed and Batman. In writing The Lego Dimensions Movie, Lord and Miller tried to follow the established "real time" logic and explicitly set it "in 2022" accommodating all previous movies in the process, with The Lego Ninjago Movie happening in 2019 and The Billion Brick Race serving as a prequel by being set in 2014 before The Lego Movie.

Series

 * Unikitty! (S-1 2017 - S-4 2022)
 * Girls Rule (S-1 2022)

Trivia

 * Unlike Wave Two, where all of its movies have post-credit scenes, only 2 of the 6 Wave One movies feature one.
 * "The Lego Batman Movie 2" was originally scheduled as the last Wave One movie, to be released in 2022, but was changed to be the second Wave Two movie after several delays.