List of cancelled Lego media
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The Lego Group is a Danish toy company that has produced many products based on original and licensed properties. The following is a list of products that were unproduced or unreleased cancelled media.
Sets[edit]
2021[edit]
Lego City[edit]
60278: Crook's Hideout Raid[edit]
In 2021, a Lego City set was leaked in an advertisement from a Lego Friends instruction manual, depicting a brick building with features such as a brick-built dynamite stick prop on the top of it, as well as a cartoonish bomb print with an exaggerated facial expression to the left side. The building is assumed to be depicting a dynamite factory, with crook minifigures being seen robbing it, and a police helicopter also being included seen hovering over it.[1]
On March 23, the fan blog Brick Fanatics confirmed that after reaching out to The Lego Group for a comment, Lego had confirmed to them they had decided to cancel plans to release the set, clarifying that it went against their brand values and had also provided this statement on behalf of their decision:
"With LEGO CITY, we always aim to represent the reality of the world in a way that is fun, positive and appropriate for kids", the CITY team stated. "With this in mind, we have decided not to launch this product as we no longer feel it is in keeping with the values of the LEGO CITY brand".
— The Lego Group[2]
Video games[edit]
2002[edit]
Lego Bionicle: The Legend of Mata Nui[edit]
Sometime in early 2001, The Lego Group hired the video game development company Saffire to create a game centered around the original 2001 storyline of the Bionicle toyline, involving the Toa Mata as they fight off against Makuta's swarms of evil Rahi that threat the island of Mata Nui. The game would have each individual Toa go onto their perspective region and fight off against the enemies relating to the level. After beating the level, the Toa would progress onto the next level and would be given a new Kanohi mask to help them along on their journey. Towards the end of the level, the Toa would then have to face off against their perspective elemental monster based on their element. The game was originally meant to be released in 2001, but was pushed back to another year to 2002, before ultimately being cancelled. In 2001, the PC port was planned for release, as well as the possibility of a GameCube port early the following year before being scrapped altogether. The gameplay has been described as being in a similar style to that of The Legend of Zelda series, specifically the Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask entries of the series.
The game was also planned to have included the original orange Kanohi Mask of Time, but due to the games' cancellation, was instead released as a promotional polybag in select Walgreens stores.
2005[edit]
Lego James Bond[edit]
TT Games created a test animation featuring a James Bond minifigure in 2005, along with Indiana Jones and Lara Croft. Although they hoped to produce a LEGO video game adaptation of James Bond, the release of Casino Royale dissuaded LEGO from licensing the "dark and gritty" property.[3]
Lego Tomb Raider[edit]
The test animation that was created by TT Games featured a Lara Croft minifigure (along with James Bond and Indiana Jones), since Eidos Interactive had published LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game and had a good relationship with TT Games. However, TT Games did not feel that a standalone LEGO Tomb Raider game would not be justified, so they approached Lucasfilm with the proposal of a crossover game starring Lara Croft and Indiana Jones. Lucasfilm immediately shot down the concept due to perceiving Tomb Raider as having "stolen" ideas from Indiana Jones.[4] LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures was ultimately released without any representation from Tomb Raider.
2012[edit]
Roblox – Lego Star Wars: The Clone Wars event[edit]
Following the sponsored Lego Hero Factory: Breakout event, the Roblox Corporation and The Lego Group originally had a deal to release another Lego-tie in event on the platform later that same year, but this time, to promote the Lego Star Wars: The Clone Wars line of sets from 2012, that were directly based on the 2008 CGI-animated series of the same name.
The planned event never came to fruition and was ultimately cancelled, and went largely unnoticed for several years until assets, including character models for Darth Vader and a Clone trooper from the event, were discovered via a portfolio site created by Stephen Jobe, a 3D artist contracted by Roblox at the time.[5]
2014[edit]
Lego The Hobbit The Battle of the Five Armies DLC[edit]
At the London Toy Fair held in January 2014 a DLC covering the events of the final film in The Hobbit series, was reported to be released around the time of the film at the end of that year.[6] Ultimately, no DLC was released. Over a year later, in a correspondence with GameSpot it was revealed that, despite no actual cancellation of the DLC, there were no longer any plans to adapt the film as a DLC, nor to adapt it as another game.[7][8]
Films[edit]
2010[edit]
Untitled Bionicle: The Legend Reborn sequel[edit]
In 2009, Universal Home Entertainment released a CGI-animated direct-to-video film, titled Bionicle: The Legend Reborn.
Not much info has been revealed about the sequel, but a general idea of the film's plot through the first draft was posted on the unofficial Bionicle community site BZPower in a blog post by Greg Farshtey (who went under the name GregF on fan-sites), the story writer for the series.[9]
2012[edit]
Untitled live-action Hero Factory film[edit]
In 2012, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Universal were trying to sign a deal with The Lego Group to acquire the film rights for a live-action film based on the Hero Factory toyline. Michael Finch and Alex Litvak were said to have wrote the film, while Mark Gordon and Bryan Zuriff of The Mark Gordon Company were set to produce alongside Ben Forkner and Dean Schnider of Film 360.[10]
2015[edit]
The Billion Brick Race[edit]
In March 2015, Warner Bros. announced that a third Lego Movie spin-off, titled The Billion Brick Race was in development. Jason Segel and Drew Pearce were signed on to co-direct and write the film. By August 2017, Jorge R. Gutierrez signed on as director, with Pearce stepping down. At that time, the film was scheduled to be released on May 24, 2019, but in 2018, Gutierrez left the project.[11][12][13] Following the box office underperformance of The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, the franchise moved to Universal Pictures in December 2019.[14][15]
2016[edit]
Contagious and Emmet Amuck[edit]
Two additional shorts based on The Lego Movie (franchise) for theatrical distribution were in production alongside The Master in 2016: Contagious directed by Patrick Osbourne, and Emmet Amuck directed by Jon Saunders and Ross Evans. Both ultimately went unreleased.[16][17][18]
2022[edit]
Lego Superfriends[edit]
In December 2018, Chris McKay confirmed that a sequel to The Lego Batman Movie was in development and that he would return to direct the film.[19]
Plans were to have the film be released in December 2022, but this release date was dropped, alongside the entirety of the production on the sequel due to Universal Pictures acquiring the film rights to produce full length Lego films.[20][21]
In 2021, McKay revealed that the script was being written by Michael Waldron and Dan Harmon. It would have focused on Batman's relationship with the Justice League, particularly Superman, and the main villains would have been Lex Luthor and OMAC.[22]
References[edit]
- ^ "Brand new LEGO CITY 60278 Crook's Hideout revealed". Brick Fanatics. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
- ^ "LEGO CITY 60278 Crook's Hideout Raid cancelled for clashing with brand values". Brick Fanatics. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
- ^ LEGO Games that nearly got made (the last one would have been amazing) – YouTube
- ^ LEGO Games that nearly got made (the last one would have been amazing) – YouTube
- ^ "ROBLOX MODEL CATALOG". Retrieved 4 March 2021.
- ^ Adam (22 January 2014). "LEGO Hobbit Videogame to get There & Back Again DLC". Brick Fanatics. Archived from the original on 6 April 2015. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
- ^ Crossley, Rob (13 March 2015). "No Plans to Release LEGO The Hobbit's Five Armies DLC". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 7 April 2015. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
- ^ Gera, Emily (16 March 2015). "Lego: The Hobbit won't get Battle of the Five Armies DLC". Polygon. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
- ^ "Bionicle #5 Treatment". BZPower. Archived from the original on 11 February 2021. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
- ^ Kit, Borys (May 23, 2012). "Universal to Develop Movie Based on Lego 'Hero Factory' Robots (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter.
- ^ Siegel, Tatiana; Kit, Borys (March 25, 2015). "New 'Lego' Spinoff Movie in the Works From Jason Segel, 'Iron Man 3' Writer (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 14, 2016.
- ^ "Film Releases". Variety. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
- ^ Wolfe, Jennifer (April 21, 2015). "Warner Bros. Resets Release Dates for Next Three 'LEGO' Features". Animation World Network. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
- ^ "LEGO Franchise Will Likely Leave Warner Bros. For Universal". 20 December 2019.
- ^ Fleming, Mike Jr. (April 23, 2020). "Universal, Lego Group Construct Five-Year Exclusive Film Partnership To Create New Movie Franchises". Deadline Hollywood.
- ^ "Lego short - contagious; Patrick Osborne". US Patent and Trademark Office. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
- ^ "Lego short- Emmet Amuck / Jon Saunders & Ross Evans". US Patent and Trademark Office. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
- ^ "David Lux". LinkedIn. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
- ^ Anderson, Jenna (December 5, 2018). "'LEGO Batman Movie 2' in the Works". ComicBook.com.
- ^ Graham (December 19, 2019). "Universal in talks to take over the LEGO movie franchise". Brick Fanatics. Retrieved December 26, 2019.
- ^ Mike Fleming Jr. (23 April 2020). "Universal, Lego Group Construct Five-Year Exclusive Film Partnership To Create New Movie Franchises". Deadline.
- ^ Motamayor, Rafael (June 14, 2021). "The Scrapped 'LEGO Batman' Sequel Was Being Written by Dan Harmon and Michael Waldron, and the Story Sounds Incredible". Collider. Retrieved June 14, 2021.
