Sophia Michaels
We finally got our best look yet at the highly anticipated “Barbie” movie yet after Warner Bros. released a whopping 23 character posters for Greta Gerwig’s film on April 4, seemingly announcing the role of every cast member. Of course, fans already knew that Margot Robbie stars as Barbie with Ryan Gosling as Ken, but the posters also confirmed that the movie is overflowing with Barbies, portrayed by actors including Issa Rae, Nicola Coughlan, Sharon Rooney, Hari Nef, Emma Mackey, Ritu Arya, and even Kate McKinnon. The posters also revealed for the first time that pop star Dua Lipa is in the film as a mermaid Barbie.
A few hours later, Warner Bros. released the newest trailer for the film, which gives us a Beach Boys-inflicted look at Barbie Land and its many Barbie and Ken residents who soak up the sun and the color pink.
The first teaser trailer for “Barbie” was released in December 2022 and the over-the-top footage paid homage to Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” to hilarious effect. The clip opens with footage of a sunrise over a desert as a documentary-style narrator says, “Since the beginning of time, since the first little girl ever existed, there have been dolls.” Little girls play with their dolls as the narrator continues, “But the dolls were always and forever baby dolls, until . . . ” The narration fades as a massive version of Margot Robbie’s Barbie stands among the girls and winks at them. Utterly impressed, the girls begin smashing their baby dolls. The trailer is short but impactful.
In a Nov. 25, 2022, episode of Lipa’s podcast “At Your Service,” — before it was revealed that the singer is in the film — Gerwig explained that she had her doubts when she started filming “Barbie.” “It was terrifying. I think there’s something about starting from that place where it’s like, ‘Well, anything is possible,'” she said. “It felt like vertigo starting to write it. Like, what would be the story?”
Even though Gerwig was important in encouraging him to write the “Barbie” script, she later told BAFTA in an interview that she still wasn’t entirely sure it would ever get greenlit. “The first time I read the ‘Barbie” script, my reaction was, “Ah
We finally got our best look yet at the highly anticipated “Barbie” movie yet after Warner Bros. released a whopping 23 character posters for Greta Gerwig’s film on April 4, seemingly announcing the role of every cast member. Of course, fans already knew that Margot Robbie stars as Barbie with Ryan Gosling as Ken, but the posters also confirmed that the movie is overflowing with Barbies, portrayed by actors including Issa Rae, Nicola Coughlan, Sharon Rooney, Hari Nef, Emma Mackey, Ritu Arya, and even Kate McKinnon. The posters also revealed for the first time that pop star Dua Lipa is in the film as a mermaid Barbie.
A few hours later, Warner Bros. released the newest trailer for the film, which gives us a Beach Boys-infused look at Barbie Land and its many Barbie and Ken residents who soak up the sun and the color pink.
The first teaser trailer for “Barbie” was released in December 2022 and the over-the-top footage paid homage to Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” to hilarious effect. The clip opens with footage of a sunrise over a desert as a documentary-style narrator says, “Since the beginning of time, since the first little girl ever existed, there have been dolls.” Little girls play with their dolls as the narrator continues, “But the dolls were always and forever baby dolls, until . . .” The narration fades as a massive version of Margot Robbie’s Barbie stands among the girls and winks at them. Utterly impressed, the girls begin smashing their baby dolls. The trailer is short but impactful.
In a Nov. 25, 2022, episode of Lipa’s podcast “At Your Service,” — before it was revealed that the singer is in the film — Gerwig explained that she had her doubts when she started filming “Barbie.” “It was terrifying. I think there’s something about starting from that place where it’s like, ‘Well, anything is possible,'” the “Lady Bird” director said. “It felt like vertigo starting to write it. Like, where do you even begin? What would be the story?”
However, Gerwig’s fear is part of what drew her to the project in the first place. “Usually, that’s where the best stuff is. When you’re like, ‘I am terrified of that,'” she said. “Anything where you’re like, ‘This could be a career-ender,’ then you’re like, ‘OK, I probably should do it.'”
Despite her trepidation, saying yes to the project wasn’t difficult for Gerwig. When Robbie asked her to write it, she immediately agreed. “She came to me and said, ‘Would you be interested in writing this?'” Gerwig said, adding that she volunteered her partner Noah Baumbach without even asking him. “And I said, ‘Yes!’ And then I said, ‘And Noah would like to write it too.’ And I had not really talked to Noah about this,” she added. “I don’t know! I think I had a six-month-old baby when I said yes. And I wasn’t necessarily running everything by him . . . It was in March of 2020 that Noah said, ‘Are we meant to be writing a “Barbie” movie?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘I don’t have any ideas for that! Why didn’t you sign us up to write a different thing?’ And I was like, ‘Because I have a feeling. I like Margot and I have a feeling.'”
Even though Robbie was instrumental in encouraging Gerwig and Baumbach to write the “Barbie” script, she later told BAFTA in an interview that she still wasn’t entirely sure it would ever get greenlit. “The first time I read the ‘Barbie’ script, my reaction was, ‘Ah! This is so good. What a shame it will never see the light of day,'” said Robbie (via IndieWire), “‘Because they are never going to let us make this movie.’ But they did.”
“Barbie” appears to have wrapped filming in July 2022, when stars including Rooney, Nef, Alexandra Shipp, and Ana Cruz Kayne all posted snaps from production on their social media — including a photo from that March that featured Robbie and Gerwig celebrating in the foreground. “It’s a wrap for the Doll! see you in Barbieland,” Nef captioned the picture on Instagram.
Shipp also shared a carousel of behind-the-scenes photos, as well as some hot pink Barbie clip art on her Instagram to commemorate her time on the production. “Thank you @barbie,” the actor captioned her post. “Thank you #GretaGerwig for trusting me to portray one of your fabulous Barbies Thank you everyone who made this experience possible 💖 I felt all the feels and love these humans so hard with all my strength! thank you cast, thank you crew, thank you production without everyone this experience wouldn’t be possible thank you thank you THANK YOU!”
Gosling previously opened up about playing Barbie’s forever boyfriend, Ken, during his “The Gray Man” press tour in July 2022. In that movie, Chris Evans’s character coincidentally calls Gosling a Ken doll. Gosling then told Entertainment Tonight, “I have that Ken-ergy that you can feel, obviously.”
“I can’t wait for people to see the film,” he added about “Barbie,” though he didn’t give away too many details. “That’s all I can say, otherwise Mattel will come in and box me up.” However, Gosling did reveal some important facts about Ken. “That Ken life is even harder than the ‘Gray Man’ life, I think,” he said. “Ken’s got no money, he’s got no job, he’s got no car, he’s got no house. He’s going through some stuff.”
Back in the summer of 2022, Warner Bros. released the first film stills of Robbie as Barbie and Gosling as Ken, complete with an orange-hued six-pack and bleach-blond hair. That June, Gosling and Robbie were also spotted on the set of “Barbie” dressed as their characters, showing off some of Barbie and Ken’s most iconic outfits.
Robbie admitted in a September 2022 interview with Jimmy Fallon that she was “mortified” to have someone take photos of them in costume on set. “We look like we’re like laughing and having fun, but dying on the inside. Dying. I was like, ‘This is the most humiliating moment of my life,'” she explained.
Read on to learn everything we know about the big film, from its plot and stacked cast to the release date, character posters, and trailers.
— Additional reporting by Chandler Plante.
