Since irector power couple Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach first signed onto Barbie back in 2019, fans have been dissecting every inch of information we’ve been granted about this highly-anticipated project. While the plot remains somewhat under wraps, we do know that it’s about a doll (Margot Robbie) living in Barbieland, who’s sets off on an adventure in the real world after being expelled for not being perfect enough.
In addition, we also have a trailer, release date, and our first look at the cast of Barbie below:
Is there a trailer for Barbie?
On April 4, 2023, the first official Barbie trailer dropped, giving us more of a glimpse into Gerwig and Baumbach’s imagining of Barbie’s hyper-plastic world. In the clip, Robbie-as-Barbie lives in the picturesque world of Barbieland. She waves hello to fellow Barbies (played by Issa Rae and Emma Mackey) on the beach, where she’s meeting her boyfriend, Ken, who is of course played by Ryan Gosling. Simu Liu also plays a rival Ken, who seems to be feuding with Gosling.
The overall tone is silly and surreal, with Gosling’s Ken telling Robbie’s Barbie that the two should spend the night together as “boyfriend-girlfriend,” before realizing that neither have any idea what that means. At some point, Barbie and Ken drive off into the “real world,” where their car is turned upside down and they enter a new reality. Luckily, Ken brought his trusty rollerblades along for the ride. Watch the first full trailer for Barbie, below:
When is Barbie’s release date?
Barbie will get the quintessential summer blockbuster release when it comes out in theaters on July 21, 2023. This is the same day Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer hits theaters, so there will be a bit of competition for audiences.
Who will play Barbie and Ken in Barbie?
Gerwig did what most mainstream directors would do and cast two stars who don’t look too far off from Barbie and Ken in day-to-day life. “It comes with a lot of baggage!” Robbie told British Vogue of playing Barbie last year. “And a lot of nostalgic connections. But with that comes a lot of exciting ways to attack it. People generally hear ‘Barbie’ and think, ‘I know what that movie is going to be,’ and then they hear that Greta Gerwig is writing and directing it, and they’re like, ‘Oh, well, maybe I don’t…’”
The plot may be unconventional, but Robbie and Gosling sure look like the traditional Barbie and Ken so far (minus the fact that Ken has “Ken” Calvin Klein-style underwear). And while Robbie could be mistaken for a character in, say, a ‘60s film like Mother’s Instinct, Gosling most definitely looks like a real-life plastic (though maybe not so fantastic) doll. Who knows how much time he’s spending in the hair and makeup trailer between all that self-tanner and bleach? Hey, it takes time and effort to maintain his character’s signature “Ken-ergy.” And apparently, things aren’t as perfect for the doll as they may appear. “Ken’s got no money, he’s got no job, he’s got no car, he’s got no house,” Gosling told ET. “He’s going through some stuff.”
Gosling says he took the role extremely seriously, despite having little previous knowledge of Ken. At Cinemacon on April 25th, Gosling said, “I have to be honest: I only knew Ken from afar, I didn’t know him from within. I didn’t know my Ken-ergy. Unfortunately, Ken has no sense of humor, and he’s deadly serious.”
Who rounds out the cast of Barbie?
The better question is, who isn’t in Barbie? On April 4th, Warner Bros released movie posters featuring several of the film’s Barbies and Kens, with a tagline about what dream profession each Barbie has (that quickly spawned a host of memes):
In addition to Robbie as The Barbie herself, Dua Lipa, who’s making music for the soundtrack, is Mermaid Barbie with bright blue hair. Issa Rae is President Barbie, Ritu Arya is Barbie with a Pulitzer, and Emma Mackey is Nobel Prize Barbie. Hari Nef is Doctor Barbie and Sharon Rooney is Lawyer Barbie, while Ana Cruz Kayne and Nicola Coughlan are Supreme Court Justice Barbie and Diplomat Barbie, respectively. Alexandra Shipp is Celebrated Author Barbie, and Kate McKinnon is Barbie whose been played with by little kids one too many times, “always in the splits” with cut up hair and crayon on her face.
The Kens don’t have their own special professions; Ken, after all, exists to support Barbie in her many endeavors. The Kens we know of so far aside from Gosling and Liu are Kingsley Ben-Adir, Scott Evans and Ncuti Gatwa. Emerald Fennell is simply “Midge,” while Michael Cera is “Allan.”
Then there are the humans: America Ferrera, Ariana Greenblatt, and Helen Mirren as the narrator. Will Ferrell (“Please call me mother”), Connor Swindells (“He’s like an intern or something”) and Jamie Demetriou (“He’s a suit”) also have their own posters.
In a post on Twitter, Hari Nef shared the heartfelt letter she wrote to Gerwig when a possible scheduling conflict almost ruined her chance at being in the film. In the note, Nef reflected on Barbie’s symbolism to the transgender community and society at large as the ultimate Doll:
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