Legoified: Predicting the next Lego sets

July 22, 2026

Lately, Lego's strategy has seemed to angle toward aggressively licensing IP, and they are leaving no stone unturned in their quest to "legoify" every popular franchise. It's like Atwood's law but in brick form - everything that can be lego'd, will be. Lego released over 150 sets in January, and sometimes I worry that the sheer number of sets dillutes the brand.

The most ridiculous Lego set Brand deals go both ways

Lego has already released sets for over 60 different TV, film and video game franchises, and they aren't holding back. They're dusting off old IP from the 90s and beyond (X-Files, Looney Tunes), and also tapping into new favorites (Wicked, Wednesday).

That's not to say anything about popular art, architecture, and cars, which Lego is also leaning heavily into. I'm not going to try to predict those because they are "evergreen" categories with a practically never-ending supply of things that can be made into Lego sets. But since licensing IP is a predictable strategy, I thought it would be fun to try and predict future Lego sets.

At first, I tried to prompt Gemini and ChatGPT with a list of the current sets, and asked them to predict what's next. They certainly pointed out some interesting picks, and I jotted down the overlapping ones. But a far better strategy I found was to simply have them rank the most popular franchises over the last 30 years.

Lego licensed every one of them.

Now with Lego's strategy clear, we can zero in on popular franchises in general. And before you say, "what about X!" Lego has probably already done it. It's actually kind of amazing. I included a list at the end of this post, with links, if you are interested.

I also looked at corollaries like theme parks and YouTube channels that use things from the popular zeitgeist.

Finally, I factored in brand image. Lego will never make a Squid Game set - they generally keep it pretty PG. The Lego brand is also global. So any prediction should be something that is globally loved. And of course Lego is targeting adults heavily, so nostalgia and old franchises are ripe for the picking.

Without further ado, here's my Top 5, followed by some further picks.

Top 5 Lego predictions

1. Studio Ghibli \- Already theme-parkified in Japan and globally popular. Picked by both Gemini and ChatGPT. 2. Harley-Davidson \- I know I said I was ignoring evergreen categories like cars - but these are motorcycles ;). A staple of popular culture, even globally. 3. Kung Fu Panda \- Consisting of 4 films and with a dedicated zone in Motiongate Dubai. 4. Madagascar \- Another one of DreamWorks' big ones, also has a dedicated zone in Motiongate Dubai. 5. The Matrix \- A huge franchise popular with adults, with lots of cool vehicles that can be legoified.