'The Lego Movie 2' trailer teases a 'Mad Max'-inspired block-buster

By Isaac Feldberg, Entertainment Weekly

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part isn’t out until February, but Warner Bros. is bricking things up a notch (sorry) with a new, action-packed trailer.

Audiences rejoin happy-go-lucky Emmet (Chris Pratt) and company five years after the events of The Lego Movie, in a Bricksburg that has been transformed into a post-apocalyptic wasteland by the arrival of Duplo invaders, complete with cyborgs, sewer babies, and a whole lot of a George Miller-inspired motorbikes. Emmet, luckily, seems unfazed as ever.

When the aliens — led by the enigmatic, helmet-clad Sweet Mayhem (Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Stephanie Beatriz) — abduct Master Builders Lucy, a.k.a. Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks), Batman (Will Arnett), Princess Unikitty (Alison Brie), MetalBeard (Nick Offerman), and Benny (Charlie Day), Emmet sets off on a rescue mission into the further reaches of the known galaxy. Along the way, he and the others encounter strange worlds, including one in which everything is a musical, and new figures, such as the shape-shifting Queen Watevra Wa-Nabi (sound it out), voiced by Girls Trip breakout Tiffany Haddish.

Judging by its trailer, The Lego Movie 2 is gunning for the same gleefully irreverent, visually inventive tone that made the original a surprising smash hit. Look for this sequel, though, to combat criticisms surrounding the dearth of female characters in the first Lego Movie. The trailer even features Sweet Mayhem scoffing to Lucy about Emmet’s status as the Special: “So you fought, and Master Built, and kicked butt, and then the hapless male was the leader?” (Wyldstyle can’t disagree there.)

Directed by Mike Mitchell and Trisha Gumm, The Lego Movie 2 opens Feb. 8. Watch the trailer above.