It’s been three weeks since we had a major news story surrounding the LCU (LEGO Cinematic Universe) movies. But don’t worry, you can finally rejoice as we have yet another major LEGO-related news story to give you, this time focusing on one of the two LEGO movies set to come out in 2017 (no, not The LEGO Batman Movie).
Thanks to a massive scoop from fan site Brickset (later picked up by The AV Club and /Film), we finally have solid details on the plot and voice cast of The LEGO Ninjago Movie, as well as our first look at the official logo, which you can see down below:
All of the details come courtesy of a catalog from Los Vegas’ 2016 Licensing Expo, where the movie was promoted as part of Warner Bros. Consumer Products’ marketing programs for their tentpole movies (The LEGO Batman Movie and S.C.O.O.B were also shown there, so expect some potential news updates to come for those movies as well).
The film, directed by Charlie Bean (in his feature film debut) from a screenplay by Dan and Kevin Hageman (writers and executive producers on the Masters of Spinjitsu series) and Brian Shukoff and Kevin Chesley (MTV’s The Hard Times of Rj Berger), will provide its own take on the Ninjago property as set in the continuity of the universe established in 2014’s The LEGO Movie.
With that said, here’s the plot synopsis of the film:
Ninjago is the story of six young ninja tasked with defending their island home, called Ninjago. By night, they’re gifted warriors, using their skill and awesome fleet of vehicles to fight villains and monsters. By day, they’re ordinary teens, struggling against their greatest enemy: high school.
As always, the voice cast for the film employs a number of A-list talents, in particular a mix of established and up-and-coming actors. Martial Arts movie legend Jackie Chan, best known to animation geeks for his role as Master Monkey in the Kung Fu Panda films, will star in the role of Master Li. He leads a voice cast that includes Dave Franco (Now You See Me 1 and 2) as Lloyd, Michael Pena (Ant Man) as Kai, Kumail Nanjiani (Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time, HBO’s Silicon Valley) as Jay, Zach Woods (NBC’s The Office, HBO’s Sillicon Valley) as Zane, Fred Armisen (Saturday Night Live) as Cole, and Abbi Jacobson (Comedy Central’s Broad City) as Nya.
The film, as previously described, will be a action-packed genre mash-up of kaiju films, martial arts movies, and anime. In keeping with that tone, the concept art that was shown at this year’s CinemaCon was described as a LEGO version of Pacific Rim.
If the details above are of any indication, The LEGO Ninjago Movie not only sounds like an exciting movie on its own, but it also looks to carve its own unique corner of the LCU.
The LEGO Ninjago Movie hits theaters on September 22, 2017.
What do you think? Any thoughts on what was revealed? Are you looking forward to The LEGO Ninjago Movie?