Phil Lord & Christopher Miller explain their LEGO Movie meta-universe

Near the end of THE LEGO MOVIE, we were transported into the "real-world" and learned that the events of the film were unfolding within the imagination of a young boy named Finn. The upcoming sequel will expand the meta-universe at the heart of the franchise now that Finn's younger sister, Bianca, will also be lending her considerable imaginative powers to the story.

During a Q&A after a recent screening of THE LEGO MOVIE 2 : THE SECOND PART, co-writers/producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller spoke with IGN to attempt to explain the increasingly complicated rules of the LEGO MOVIE universe. "You started this movie [The LEGO Movie 2] knowing that there was a human world," Miller explained, "and that the world of LEGO was the world of Finn’s imagination. And so going into the movie, most people are armed with that information, so we wanted to try and tell a more complicated and sophisticated version of that story, where we had two different imaginations coming together. And part of the fun of the movie is trying to figure out what’s happening in the real world and how that’s represented in the world of the LEGO." Lord added that they struck on the idea of telling the story "from the brother’s point of view and the sister’s point of view at the same time." As the story at the heart of THE LEGO MOVIE sequel will unfold from the perspective of both siblings, the writers needed to think about whose in control of the LEGO characters at any given time and how it would effect their personalities.

“But we like that people can interpret it their own way,” Miller continued. “Even people in the crew interpret it differently. But the general idea is that when Bianca, who is played by young Brooklynn Prince, who is an absolute delight of a human being, takes the […] characters upstairs she’s playing with them and telling a story of her own, that’s sort of analogous to a story that Finn was telling in the first movie, when he was playing both sides of a war that was happening with President Business, who represented his dad in the story. She’s telling a story of converting these…"

“She’s kind of imagining how they [the LEGO characters] are experiencing it,” Lord interjected. “One interpretation is not that they are retaining their personalities across two imaginations, but rather that…”

“It’s her representation of what his point of view would be,” said Miller, finishing Lord’s sentence.

“Right,” Lord continued. “She’s imagining his point of view of them, and that they represent that, and that she knows that it’s going to take a while to convert them over.”

The official synopsis of THE LEGO MOVIE 2: THE SECOND PART:

“The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part” reunites the heroes of Bricksburg in an all new action-packed adventure to save their beloved city. It’s been five years since everything was awesome and the citizens are facing a huge new threat: LEGO DUPLO^® invaders from outer space, wrecking everything faster than they can rebuild. The battle to defeat them and restore harmony to the LEGO universe will take Emmet, Lucy, Batman and their friends to faraway, unexplored worlds, including a strange galaxy where everything is a musical. It will test their courage, creativity and Master Building skills, and reveal just how special they really are.

THE LEGO MOVIE 2: THE SECOND PART will hit theaters on February 8, 2019.