We’ve just gotten our best look yet at the highly anticipated “Barbie” movie yet! On April 4, Warner Bros. released a whopping 23 character posters for Greta Gerwig’s film, seemingly announcing the role of every member of the cast. Of course, fans already knew that Margot Robbie stars as Barbie with Ryan Gosling as Ken, but the posters confirm 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 new 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. See the character posters and watch the trailer ahead!
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 teaser 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 little 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 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, her 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.'”
“Barbie” appeared 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 March featuring 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 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 as well. “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 also opened up about playing Barbie’s forever boyfriend, Ken, during his “The Gray Man” press tour in July. In that movie, Chris Evans’s character coincidentally calls Gosling a Ken doll. Gosling told Entertainment Tonight, “I have that Ken-ergy that you can feel, obviously.”
“I can’t wait for people to see the film,” he told ET 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.” But he did reveal some important facts about Ken.
“That Ken life is even harder than the ‘Gray Man’ life, I think,” Gosling 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, the studio released the first photos 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 upcoming film, including its plot, cast, and release date, and to see all the character posters and trailers.
– Additional reporting by Chandler Plante.
Related: 35 of the Most Anticipated Movies of 2023, From “The Little Mermaid” to “Dune: Part II”
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