Release Date, Cast, Trailer & Everything We Know
Hollywood is finally bringing Barbie to life in its first major live-action movie, more than 60 years after the iconic doll was first released in 1959. The Barbie franchise has been a global sensation since its debut, with its toy extensions, animated movies, and fashion inspiration sparking conversations about women’s expectations, vlogs, and even a hit song. The new Barbie movie, which is scheduled to release in 2023, is one of the most anticipated movies of the year, helmed by the critically acclaimed filmmaker Greta Gerwig, who is known for her feminist themes in movies like Lady Bird and Little Women.
Despite the setback caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Barbie movie is set to be a blockbuster hit, with an exciting cast and a soundtrack featuring popular artists like Nicki Minaj, Dua Lipa, Haim, and Lizzo. A recent update revealed that the Barbie movie’s soundtrack features a new track by Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice, titled “Barbie World,” which perfectly captures the movie’s high energy and colorful world. The soundtrack also includes contributions from a variety of popular artists, such as Charli XCX and Tame Impala.
The Barbie movie’s release date is scheduled for July 21st, 2023, and fans can’t wait to see their favorite doll come to life on the big screen. The movie’s cast features Margot Robbie as the titular doll and Ryan Gosling as Ken, her boyfriend. The star-studded cast also includes Issa Rae, Alexandra Shipp, Emma Mackey, Ritu Arya, Nicola Coughlan, Sharon Rooney, Anya Cruz Kanye, Dua Lipa, and Hari Nef, as other versions of Barbie, along with Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir, and Ncuti Gatwa, who play other versions of Ken.
The Barbie movie’s story follows Barbie’s journey as she is expelled from Barbieland for not being perfect enough, leading her to embark on an adventure in the real world, where she discovers life beyond the confines of perfection. The movie seems to explore some of the criticisms of the Barbie toys’ promotion of unrealistic levels of perfection and gender roles. The latest updates on the movie’s costumes reveal that the movie’s designers were inspired by Barbie dolls from different eras, recreating iconic looks to bring the dolls to life on the big screen.
With its highly anticipated release, the Barbie movie is expected to be a huge hit, projected to make between $55-$85 million in its opening weekend. The movie’s release also coincides with the release of Oppenheimer, causing huge competition between the two fanbases and speculation over which will be more successful. The Barbie movie cast and crew are confident that the movie will be a hit, and fans can’t wait to see their favorite doll come to life in this exciting new adventure.
Hollywood is producing its first major live-action Barbie movie, over 60 years since the first ever Barbie was released in 1959, and there has been plenty of Barbie movie updates about the cinematic homage to one of the most iconic toys of all time. The IP that comes with Barbie has been extremely popular since the doll’s inception and success, as the doll and its toy extensions have spawned animated movies, fashion inspiration, conversations about women’s expectations, vlogs, and a hit song.
Greta Gerwig has taken over Hollywood in the past few years as an actress and filmmaker with directorial successes like Lady Bird and Little Women. The new Barbie movie marks a more mainstream effort for the filmmaker, being one of the most anticipated movies of 2023. The themes in Gerwig’s movies have sparked much conversation about feminism and women’s treatment in society, a topic Barbie will likely face head-on. Barbie was announced all the way back in 2019 with intentions to start production in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic threw a wrench in that plan. But with an announced release date, cast, story, and fun trailers, audiences are waiting for Barbie with anticipation.
The Latest Barbie Movie News
The most recent Barbie movie updates arrive thanks to June 23 being National Pink Day, and Warner Bros. has capitalized on the convenient holiday with a new poster tweeted by DiscussingFilm. The poster won’t be seen on billboards showing off the cast, but it’s instead a fun mock-up of everything that defines Barbie. Between Barbie’s convertible car, her high-heel shoes, her dresses, and, of course, the Barbie Dreamhouse, the poster celebrates everything pink about the upcoming Barbie movie.
A new song from the Barbie movie soundtrack has also been released. “Barbie World” by Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice is a huge hit track that interpolates the classic 1997 Aqua song, just as many other Minaj songs sample goofy classics. It perfectly captures the high energy and colorful world of the movie, and that’s just a taste of the extensive soundtrack. Barbie‘s soundtrack features contributions from Charli XCX, Dua Lipa, Haim, Lizzo, and even the indie band Tame Impala.
Another recent Barbie movie update is regarding early screenings for the movie that the studio has called “blowout parties.” Posted to the official Barbie movie Twitter page, the blowout parties will take place on July 19 in select theatres at 7 pm. The tweet explained, “Nothing big planned… just a giant blowout party with all the Barbies, and planned choreography, and a bespoke song.“
Other recent Barbie movie update sheds light on the movie’s amazing costumes, which seem to have already become iconic before the movie has even been released. New images for the Barbie movie highlighted the dedication to authenticity in recreating the classic Barbie looks. According to Barbie costume designer Jacqueline Durran (via Vogue), her early costume sketches for the movie were inspired by the looks of the dolls from different eras – including 1994’s Hot Skatin’ Barbie look that gained a lot of attention when the Barbie first-look images began circulating. This adds a new element of fun Easter eggs fans can explore in the movie to see which other famous looks are brought to the big screen.
Barbie Movie Release Date
The Barbie release date is July 21st, 2023. Barbie will release in theaters, and it’s unclear when the feature film will head to streaming. After being confirmed in 2019, filming for Barbie kicked off in March of 2022, with various pictures seen of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling filming in Venice Beach and L.A. Production officially wrapped for most of the Barbie cast in July 2022. However, for fans who can’t wait until Barbie’s wide release, it will also be released in select theatres at 7 pm on July 19th for the special “blowout party” preview.
The Barbie movie is being released alongside Oppenheimerwhich has caused huge competition between the two fanbases and speculation over which will be more successful. Though the two movies’ releases will hardly impact the other, as it’s a perfect example of counterprogramming, early projections suggest that Barbie will be way more successful than the Christopher Nolan-directed movie (via Box Office Pro), at least when it comes to the opening weekend. The Barbie movie is projected to make between $55-$85 million in its opening weekend, whereas Oppenheimer is projected to make $40-55 million.
Barbie Movie Cast & Crew
Barbie is Gerwig’s third directed film following Little Women in 2019. She also wrote the movie’s screenplay with her long-time partner and frequent collaborator Noah Baumbach. Robbie leads the Barbie cast as the titular doll and while the trailer clearly shows that there are multiple Barbies in Barbie Land, it seems as though Robbie’s version is the original icon herself. Meanwhile, Gosling is playing the quintessential Ken, Barbie’s boyfriend.
The star-studded cast for Barbie beyond Robbie and Gosling is vast,. Issa Rae is the president of Barbie Land while Alexandra Shipp, Emma Mackey, Ritu Arya, Nicola Coughlan, Sharon Rooney, Anya Cruz Kanye, Dua Lipa, and Hari Nef play other versions of Barbie along with Kate McKinnon as a particularly odd Barbie. Simu Liu is a rival Ken to Gosling’s version with Kingsley Ben-Adir and Ncuti Gatwa playing other versions of Ken. Michael Cera and Emerald Fennell also received character posters as Alan and Midge respectively. The trailer also features a glimpse of Will Ferrell playing the President of Mattel in the real world.
One of the most conversation-generating Barbie cast updates is that John Cena will portray Merman Ken alongside Dua Lipa’s Mermaid Barbie. This also marks another collaboration between Robbie and Cena after they worked together in 2021’s The Suicide Squad. Ironically, the actor, known for his masculine roles, is delightfully more excited than anyone about the movie. Cena explained, “Fast X was filming across the street from Barbie. And [she asked]’Why don’t you do Barbie?’ I said, ‘I’ve been trying!’ And Margot makes a lot of the decisions for that and I said, ‘Well, I’ll do whatever you need.‘”
Given that the Barbie movie cast will feature multiple Barbies, Robbie tried to cast Gal Gadot as one of them. Robbie explained her reasoning behind the choice, noting, “Gal Gadot is Barbie energy. Because Gal Gadot is so impossibly beautiful, but you don’t hate her for being that beautiful, because she’s so genuinely sincere.” Given that Fast X and Barbie were filming next to each other, using Gadot for just one day could have been possible, but the Wonder Woman actor was unavailable due to other scheduling conflicts. Gadot responded to Robbie’s comments (via ET Online), saying, “Margo, I love you! I’ll do anything with you, I’ll be [in] anything with you!,” hinting at a future collaboration.
Barbie Movie Story
The latest Barbie movie updates have finally revealed the full story, as the trailer details the central premise. In the movie, Barbie is expelled from Barbieland after not following its regulations of being perfect enough. In the Barbie movie story, the doll then embarks on an adventure in the real world where she discovers life without the confines of perfection.
The extended Cinema Con 2023 trailer showed Barbie’s dream life in Barbieland crumbling when she questions the concept of dying and when her feet touch flat on the ground. Weird Barbie then sends her on a journey to choose between the real world and her fantasy life. She chooses to test the real world and Ken tags along, which sees them meet the toy boss who isn’t happy about their decision. From there, the pair struggle to adjust to the real world, seemingly leading to a fish-out-of-water storyline.
The Barbie movie looks to explore some of the unrealistic levels of perfection the Barbie toys have been criticized for promoting over the years. There also seems to be some interesting commentary on gender roles as the latest character posters for Barbie highlight the Barbies’ various achievements while the Kens ‘are humorously diminished. For instance, Emma Mackey’s Barbie is described as having a Nobel Prize in physics while Anya Cruz Kanye’s Barbie is a Supreme Court Justice. On the other hand, Gosling’s poster reads “He’s just Ken” while Liu’s states “He’s another Ken.”
Another interesting bit of Barbie news comes from Margot Robbie herself, as she discussed what it was like to read the screenplay for the first time. In an interview with BAFTARobbie said, “Ah! This is so good. What a shame it will never see the light of day because they are never going to let us make this movie.” Gerwig and Baumbach’s script has also been praised by star Mackey and looks like another success for the Oscar-nominated writers.
Barbie Movie Trailer
The latest Barbie movie trailer gives audiences a better Barbie movie update than the previous teasers. It looks to be a cartoonish but still ambitious blockbuster with Robbie exemplifying the iconic aspects of Barbie with her impossibly pointed feet and her ever-present smile. Gosling also looks hilarious as the himbo Ken. The trailer gives glimpses of some big musical numbers at Barbie’s house before she departs to the real world with Ken in tow. There, shenanigans go down with them getting arrested, Barbie talking to kids who don’t like Barbie dolls, and Ken thinking he can perform surgery simply because he’s a man.
Also, while it’s not a trailer, Architectural Digest recently provided a tour of the Barbie movie set (via YouTube), detailing how much effort it took to bring it to life with miniatures and a lot of pink. The clip opens with Robbie giving a tour of the Barbie Dreamhouse and explaining, “Not super practical, but nothing is for Barbie.” Gerwig stressfully admits in the clip, “I can’t tell you the number of meetings we’ve had about pink.” However, the director also gives some fascinating insight into the set’s influences, revealing, “Because Barbie was invented in 1959, it felt we could ground everything in that look of 1950s soundstage musicals.”
