The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part required a gigantic community to aid in its making, but few members played as pivotal a role as the directors. Mike Mitchell, fresh off the success of Trolls, and Trisha Gum, who acted as head of story on LEGO Batman, discussed the collaborative process of building the world of LEGO and agreed that it really does take a village.

Screen Rant: So, guys, congratulations on the film. I saw it yesterday, it was amazing… Trish, you were Head of Story on LEGO Batman. How did that previous experience influence your creative choices this time around?

Screen Rant: Exactly! You [Mike] stepped in for Phil Lord and Chris Miller themselves as director. So was that a little bit scary, stepping into big shoes?

Trisha Gum: Well, it was a world that I got to play in before. So it was exciting to be able to bring all my knowledge from LEGO Batman into this film and really be able to use those tools and stuff to make this film the next level of a LEGO Movie.

Mike Mitchell: She knew all the tricks. She got it all down.

Screen Rant: One of the themes that I felt from the film was “the more, the merrier” in terms of work and play. So I assume the set for you guys must have been the merriest because there’s literally thousands of moving pieces.

Mike Mitchell: It was at first because I was like, ‘Please don’t make a sequel to the LEGO film.’ It’s one of my favorite films of all time; it’s the perfect film. ‘Don’t make a sequel,’ and then Chris and Phil explained what the story was, and I was like, ‘Oh, man, I gotta be a part of that now. That’s the greatest idea! That’s so cool, that’s the perfect sequel.’ And I think the fans are really gonna dig it.

Screen Rant: Speaking of the brother and the sister, they created these amazing worlds that you also had to build. What was that process like? How dd you come up with what elements were gonna be in Systar System?

Mike Mitchell: We kind of lived our theme because the way Trish and I worked together was definitely more creative and inspiring than being alone and by yourself, right?

Trisha Gum: Just by really bringing both of our backgrounds and knowledge, and really spit balling off each other creatively, it benefitted the movie because it really helped us make a film extraordinary with a giant imagination.

Mike Mitchell: And then we got to relate to the brother and the sister.

Screen Rant: I love what you said about music too, because that explains all the songs.

Mike Mitchell: Pretty insane. It helped because Trish and I really got into who this little girl was, and she has a different way of playing,

Trisha Gum: Yeah, we really started with Bianca’s character, which is the sister, and so went in and we decided she’s really into science, she’s crafty…

Mike Mitchell: Super creative, musical…

Trisha Gum: So that kind of led the visual sense of the world.

Mike Mitchell: It not just LEGOs, she mixes friends, Duplo, LEGO, and she incorporates glitter, fabric, paper. We got to color with crayons, our effects guy had Trish and I coloring with crayons.

Screen Rant: You guys had new actors that you got to work with and incorporate into the story. Was there a collaborative process there, and any moments that were particularly awesome that you can recall?

Trisha Gum: Exactly.

Screen Rant: Yeah! So how did you guys approach that?

Trisha Gum: I mean, I thought it was awesome to just have each of the new – you know, Steph Beatriz and Tiffany Haddish – just come in and help create these characters with us.

Mike Mitchell: And Chris Pratt got to create a new character too, so that was a weird…

More: Phil Lord & Chris Miller Interview for LEGO Movie 2

Mike Mitchell: Very playfully. Trish and I get into the recording booth with the actors and go nuts. All these actors are the best improv people of all time. They’re so naturally funny that they just kind of got into their characters, took it and run with it. It was really cool.

Trisha Gum: They inspired us, they really made the characters come to life.

  • The Lego Movie 2 Release Date: 2019-02-08