After the 60th anniversary of Barbie a year ago, it was then the icon Claudia…
Source: Vogue – 15 June 2022
Margot Robbie will star in the titular role, with Ryan Gosling confirmed to play Barbie’s boyfriend, Ken. Other notable actors joining the LuckyChap Entertainment production are Kate McKinnon, America Ferrera, and Oscar-winner Emerald Fennell. Perhaps most intriguingly, Sex Education’s Emma Mackey has also signed on to appear alongside Netflix co-star Ncuti Gatwa in a yet-to-be-revealed role – with rumours that the Robbie doppelgänger could be playing one of Barbie’s three younger sisters, Skipper, Chelsea, and Stacie.
The film will centre on a doll living in Barbieland, who’s forced to leave due to her so-called imperfections – setting off on an adventure in the real world and discovering along the way that perfection can only truly be found within. If that sounds painfully clichéd, it’s worth noting that feminist auteur Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird) is both writing and directing the movie, with input from her partner Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story).
Warner Bros Pictures confirmed at CinemaCon 2022 in Las Vegas that the film will hit cinemas on 21 July 2023.
Not yet, but Netflix has released some initial stills of both Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in character as Barbie and Ken.
According to Margot Robbie, the film will take past criticisms of Barbie – and her own casting in the biopic’s lead role – into account.
In her cover interview for British Vogue’s August 2021 issue, Robbie admitted that creating a live-action Barbie film “comes with a lot of baggage” as well as “a lot of nostalgic connections”. “But with that come[s] 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…’” It’s no secret that the franchise’s lack of diversity has historically proved controversial, too – and is something that Gerwig will need to tackle head-on in the film.