The LEGO Group’s 2026 and 2027 portfolio is proof positive, if you need it, that it will turn pretty much everything into a LEGO set eventually.
With most major Hollywood franchises under its belt – Star Wars, Marvel, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Avatar et al – the LEGO Group is now turning its attention to a broader mix of vintage and current IP partners. Thanks to fresh rumours dropping this week, across this year alone we’re either confirmed or rumoured to be seeing Pokémon, Dragon Ball, K-Pop Demon Hunters, Olivia Rodrigo, Shrek, Tintin, Peanuts, E.T., PlayStation, SpongeBob and Project Hail Mary in the mix.
The LEGO Group also has X-Files, Wallace and Gromit and Yu-Gi-Oh! sets on the way (at some point) thanks to various LEGO Ideas contests, along with Downton Abbey, Godzilla, The Smurfs and Power Rangers waiting in the wings courtesy of successful LEGO Ideas projects. At this point, it’s difficult to think of a franchise that hasn’t been turned into a LEGO set.
The clincher, though, is that the LEGO Group and Nintendo have just announced that Super Mario minifigures are on the way in 2027. You know, the one thing Mario fans have been asking for since the digital figures and interactive courses dropped all the way back in 2020. It turns out all we needed was patience: whatever you want from a LEGO set or minifigure, it will come along eventually.
This isn’t to say that LEGO fans have no agency and that we should all just sit on our hands and wait for the LEGO Group to figure out what we want from future products. The LEGO Ideas projects bringing many of these intellectual properties to life are proof enough of that, but there’s also a fair chance that the endless calls for Super Mario minifigures from the community had at least some influence over the decision to make it happen.
It does give reason to be optimistic, however, if the LEGO set closest to your heart has not yet materialised. There are obvious exceptions to this rule – Stranger Things is probably the upper limit of what we’ll see from LEGO Icons in terms of suitability, so don’t expect LEGO Game of Thrones or LEGO Breaking Bad any time soon – but if something feels like a good fit for a LEGO set, it’ll probably happen one day.
That’s relevant too even within long-running themes. Just consider how long LEGO Star Wars fans were clamouring for another Cloud City, a new ARC-170 and a remake of Jango Fett’s Slave I. All those things came to pass eventually, just as no doubt we’ll one day get a new Ewok Village and a Bounty Hunter Pursuit remake (what do you know, both of those are rumoured for some time this year or next).
This faint air of inevitability around the portfolio is also quite reassuring in the context of retired LEGO sets. Sure, you missed out on the 2013 Republic Gunship, but let’s be honest: of course the LEGO Star Wars team is one day going to return to the LAAT/i in standard hues. Maybe you didn’t score 43222 Disney Castle before it left shelves in 2025, but is it really so hard to imagine another big LEGO Disney castle coming along somewhere down the line?
So, with all this in mind, what are you now patiently waiting for the LEGO Group to deliver? Let us know in the comments. There can’t be many licensed stones left unturned at this point…
Head here for a complete list of LEGO sets confirmed or rumoured for 2026.
Featured image credits: Shrek and Smurfs (via CC BY-NC 4.0), SpongeBob
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