Prepare to watch Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Issa Rae, and Simu Liu ham it up in Greta Gerwig’s dreamscape.
Bum… bum… BUM BUMMMMM! Barbie is here, people. And she’s 2o feet tall. This Friday morning, the first trailer for Barbie finally dropped. (If you somehow missed the dozens of neon-hued set photos from over the summer, Barbie is Greta Gerwig’s latest directorial endeavor, which she wrote alongside her partner,
Noah Baumbach. Margot Robbie stars as Barbie—or, at least, one of the Barbies—and Ryan Gosling and his cursed platinum blonde hair will take on Ken.)
The trailer begins with a hilarious 2001: A Space Odyssey homage, as we learn how the doll industry in this country went from manufacturing babies to Barbies. Then, we get all-too-brief glimpses of Robbie, Gosling, Issa Rae, and Simu Liu hamming it up in Gerwig’s dreamscape. The movie hits theaters next year, and we’re patiently waiting to see what unfolds. In the meantime, watch the trailer below—and read on for everything you need to know about the upcoming Barbie movie.
Gosling will star against Robbie as a totally broke Ken. This may sound like a natural choice, but it seems that even though he loved the script, Gosling needed a little push to take the role. Well, that push came in the form of a Ken doll face down… in the dirt… next to a lemon. Speaking on The Tonight Show, Gosling opened up to host Jimmy Fallon about how he finally decided to accept after he got the initial offer.
"Best script I’ve ever read. I walk out in the backyard and, do you know where I found Ken, Jimmy?" Gosling said, "Face down in the mud next to a squished lemon. I texted [the photo] to Greta and said, ‘I shall be your Ken, for his story must be told.’"
Along with Robbie and Gosling, we can expect a stacked cast. Though in still-unspecified roles, here is the list of several others that are set to make appearances: Kate McKinnon, N’Cuti Gatwa, Emma Mackey, America Fererra, Will Ferrell, Michael Cera, Hari Nef, Alexandra Shipp, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Rhea Perlman, Emerald Fennell, Sharon Rooney, Ariana Greenblatt, and Jamie Demetriou.
Saoirse Ronan and Dua Lipa have been rumored to be in the upcoming film, but Ronan quashed those rumors when she announced that "was gutted" to miss out due to scheduling conflicts. “There was a whole character I was going to play—another Barbie,” she told People. But hope springs eternal; the actress added, "I have texted Margot and Greta and I’m like, ‘If you’re doing any pick-up [shots], maybe I can just walk through the background?’" Get ready to play "Where’s Saiorse?"
This we cannot say for sure. However, we do know that there are some twists that lay ahead, and that the movie is probably not going to be a straightforward, fluffy film á la Barbie Life in The Dreamhouse.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Robbie confirmed as much. "People immediately have an idea of, ‘Oh, Margot is playing Barbie, I know what that is,’" she said, "But our goal is to be like, ‘Whatever you’re thinking, we’re going to give you something totally different—the thing you didn’t know you wanted.’"
The rumors of the film harboring multiple Barbies have been confirmed by Sex Education and Death on The Nile alum, Mackey. Speaking to Empire, Mackey mentioned a sleepover amongst the Barbie cast that has fans talking. “Right in the beginning, we had a sleepover for the Barbies, which would involve playing games with Scott [Evans] and Ncuti [Gatwa],” she said.
She later added that "Barbie is light and funny and silly and American and pink." Rest assured, it won’t make you cry. "It’s very unexpected in many ways," Mackey said. I think people are going to have an idea of the film, and I don’t think it’s going to be that. It’s going to be a surprise. And it’s a comedy, thank God. No crying in this film! Let me tell you that. No crying! It was great to do pure comedy—an American comedy."
As announced by Warner Bros., the movie is set to hit theaters July 21, 2023.
#BARBIE
July 21, 2023
Only in theaters pic.twitter.com/mauCGpizD1
Sure! A seemingly endless number of photos and videos from the film set trended on Twitter over the summer. Here is some of that action below.
i’m obsessed… pic.twitter.com/exhFW7BBb3
Greta Gerwig with the cast of ‘BARBIE’ – Issa Rae, Simu Liu, Scott Evans, Ncuti Gatwa, Emma Mackey, and more! pic.twitter.com/0SDelCLh7r
margot robbie’s barbie voice can be heard for the first time <3 pic.twitter.com/JfKbxP2Zst
THEY’RE TRYING TO CATCH BARBIE OMG pic.twitter.com/n0awq1w7fO
Ryan Gosling as Ken on the set of BARBIE pic.twitter.com/r7EpdCvGaQ
Ammal Hassan is a writer and Esquire’s Snapchat Editor. She covers all things culture with a focus on music and pop culture. She is from Nairobi, Kenya and lives in New York City.
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