Barbie Director Greta Gerwig Reveals If a Sequel Is Happening

Barbie is everything, but Barbie may just be a stand-alone movie.

Although the Greta Gerwig-directed comedy continues to do numbers at the box office after its July 21 premiere, the filmmaker isn't itching to start work on a sequel.

"At this moment, it's all I've got," Gerwig—who also co-wrote the film with real-life partner Noah Baumbach—told The New York Times in a July 25 interview. "I feel like that at the end of every movie, like I'll never have another idea and everything I've ever wanted to do, I did."

She continued, "I wouldn't want to squash anybody else's dream but for me, at this moment, I'm at totally zero."

But that's not to say the idea of a Barbie 2 has been completely thrown out the Dreamhouse window. Margot Robbie, who stars as the titular doll and is a producer on Barbie, previously said that she's been involved in talks for another potential movie, though nothing is official. 

"It could go a million different directions from this point," the actress explained to Time magazine in June. "But I think you fall into a bit of a trap if you try and set up a first movie whilst also planning for sequels."

But regardless if a Barbie follow-up is in the works, there are already many stars lining up to be the next resident of Barbieland.

"Let's read the script," Cillian Murphy, whose movie Oppenheimer debuted on the same day as Barbie, recently said after Omelete asked if he would ever want to play Ken. "Let's have a conversation."

Likewise, his co-stars Emily Blunt and Matt Damon are down. "Yes, please!" Blunt told the Brazilian outlet. "I'd do anything with Greta Gerwig."

However, Damon noted that he'll never be able to beach off against Ryan Gosling, who stars opposite of Robbie in Barbie. "Nobody's out-Kenning that guy," he joked. "I don't have enough kenergy."

For more fantastic factoids and secrets about Barbie, keep reading.

Margot Robbie, who stars as Barbie and also produced the film, admitted in an interview that she always wanted Ryan Gosling to be her Ken. She said he was written into the script—as the character "Ken Ryan Gosling"—and joked, "We pretty much wouldn't take no for an answer."

"We just kept bothering you," writer/director Greta Gerwig admitted to Ryan in an SXM interview. "Margot was like, 'Is it weird if I go to his house?' I was like, 'Don't go to his house. We're just gonna stay put.' Send a follow-up text." As Margot teased, "I would see a sea of blue on my phone."

Ryan revealed that Margot gave him daily gifts inspired by his character Beach Ken. 

"She left a pink present with a pink bow, from Barbie to Ken, every day while we were filming," Ryan told Vogue. "They were all beach-related. Like puka shells, or a sign that says 'Pray for surf.'" He said that he's "never quite figured out" what Ken's job as "Beach" means, "But I felt like she was trying to help Ken understand, through these gifts that she was giving."

Amy Schumer explained the real reason she dropped out of the Barbie movie.

"I think we said it was scheduling conflict, that's what we said," she said on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen in June 2023. "But yeah, it really was just, like, creative differences. But you know what? There's like a new team behind it, and it looks like it's very feminist and cool. So, I will be seeing that movie."

These Barbies were almost movie stars—or, rather, these movie stars were almost Barbies. After Amy left the movie, Anne Hathaway was signed up to take the lead, but it was later reported that she was no longer involved. When Margot got on board, she tried to recruit Gal Gadot to join as another Barbie, but the Wonder Woman star wasn't available. 

Greta Gerwig's former Lady Bird and Little Women muse Saoirse Ronan was also supposed to appear in Barbie but had to cancel. "I was supposed to do a cameo because I live in London and they were [filming] there," the actress admitted to People. "There was a whole character I was going to play—another Barbie. I was gutted I couldn't do it."

 

Casting director Allison Jones revealed Saturday Night Live star Bowen Yang, Schitt's Creek actor Dan Levy and Dear Evan Hansen actor Ben Platt almost played Kens in the movie but weren't able to make it work. She added, "They were, I'm not kidding, really bummed they couldn't do it."

According to the casting director, before Michael Cera came on board as Ken's buddy Allan, it almost went to a certain Frozen actor.

"Dear, dear Jonathan Groff was like, ‘I can't believe I'm typing this," Allison Jones told Vanity Fair, "but I can't do Allan."

 

America's IRL husband Ryan Piers Williams plays none other than her character Gloria's husband in Barbie. Ryan—whose past work includes producing, writing and acting in X/Y with America in 2014—is credited as "El Esposo de Gloria."

Going where no Barbie has gone before... The opening scene of Barbie pays homage to the 1968 Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey, which shows a group of hominins discovering a futuristic monolith. In Barbie, a group of girls are shocked by a giant version of the original 1959 Barbie doll, wearing a black and white striped swimsuit.

Fans speculate that Gloria's daughter Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt) and her friends in the cafeteria were inspired by Barbie's rivals, the original Bratz dolls: Sasha, Chloe, Yasmin and Jade.

"It was a happy accident," John Cena told Today of his casting as a Mermaid Ken. He said he "kind of" pitched himself to join the film "in an accidental run-in with Margot Robbie." John told her, "I would do, pretty much, whatever you guys need 'cause I really enjoy the movie and they asked me if I wanted to be a merman."

The French version of Barbie's poster went viral after social media users pointed out the double entendre of the translation. "She can do everything. He's just Ken," the English tagline goes, which was translated to, "Elle peut tout faire. Lui, c'est juste Ken."

However, fans went wild after pointing out that "ken" has a slang meaning in French as "f--k" and would translate to, "He can only f--k." Bonjour, Ken!

The Barbie actresses revealed they had a cast sleepover at the London hotel Claridge's to get close. "We all shared beds and wore our pajamas, and ordered room service," Margot shared on The Kelly Clarkson Show, "and played games, and found out that America [Ferrera] is exceptionally competitive."

America had her own tea to spill about the evening. "Nobody told me that it was a sexy Barbie sleepover," she quipped. "So everybody was in like really pretty silky nightgowns, and I was in like the most grandma floral twin set you can imagine."

As for the Kens? "Greta was very deliberate in what she wanted the Kens to do to bond," Simu Liu exclusively told E! News, "which was to gym together."

Though Nicola Coughlan only appeared for a few moments in the film, it was very important to her to experience life in plastic.

"I auditioned for Barbie back in January 22 when I was on holiday with friends," she wrote on Instagram. "I'd packed one random hot pink dress I hadn't worn at all and when I had to make my audition tape I thought- this is fate, I have a dress in Barbie Pink!"

Admitting she's "obsessed" with Greta Gerwig, the Bridgerton star said that "the prospect of working with her was something I couldn't even have imagined." 

"When I found out she wanted to have me be part of @barbiethemovie, and then that I probably wouldn't be able to make it work because of my schedule I was firstly elated and quickly heartbroken," Nicola continued. "So when I was asked if I wanted to pop into Barbieland even briefly my answer was an immediate, and very emphatic yes." 

The film concludes with Margot Robbie adopting a new life as a human named Barbara Handler, a reference to Barbie inventor Ruth Handler's real-life daughter. Barbie enters an office building and delivers her final line to a receptionist: "I'm here to see my gynecologist."

Why did Greta end on that note? "With this film, it was important for me that everything operated on at least two levels," she told USA Today. "I knew I wanted to end on a mic drop kind of joke, but I also find it very emotional. When I was a teenage girl, I remember growing up and being embarrassed about my body, and just feeling ashamed in a way that I couldn't even describe. It felt like everything had to be hidden." 

The director said she hoped the way Margot delivered the line with a "big old smile on her face" and with "such happiness and joy" would help de-stigmatize conversations about women's health and "give girls that feeling of, 'Barbie does it, too'—that's both funny and emotional."

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