As Barbie painted the world pink and coated the field workplace in a whopping $1.4 billion of inexperienced, an pressing query emerged and was lobbed at everybody concerned: What a few sequel?
It’s a question that even somebody as adorably clueless as Ken might’ve provide you with and one which Warner Bros. and Mattel had been understandably wanting to reply with a powerful, “Yes, please!” because it grew to become the indeniable popular culture phenomenon of 2023. But the reply has all the time rested with the Barbie mind belief of Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach even when, at instances, a franchise appeared inevitable.
The companions in life and creativity — they co-wrote the script and snagged an Oscar nomination for his or her collaboration — had been clear in pursuing a follow-up if and provided that they might discover the story to assist it. At least that’s what director Gerwig repeatedly said. “My North Star is, what do I deeply love? What do I actually care about? What’s the story beneath this story?” Gerwig mentioned as she accepted Time’s Women of the Year honors in March 2024. “If I discover the undertow, then we get it. If I don’t discover an undertow, there’s no extra.”
The Hollywood Reporter has discovered per a well-placed supply that Gerwig and Baumbach have been swept up in an undertow and hatched an concept for the sequel, having already introduced it to Warner Bros. While it’s mentioned to be in “early phases,” it’s understood that discovering the story has opened the door for deal discuss which, once more, is early, one other supply with direct data confirms.
A rep for the studio and a rep for the filmmakers pushed again. “There is not any legitimacy to this reporting,” mentioned Gerwig and Baumbach’s rep, whereas a Warner Bros. consultant added, “THR’s reporting is inaccurate.”
Oscar nominated Barbie writers Baumbach and Gerwig.
JC Olivera/Getty Images
Should a deal make, the main focus could be hammering out a script and lining up schedules so as to take action. Baumbach is tough at work on post-production for his subsequent movie, an untitled and star-packed coming-of-age mission for Netflix. Expected for subsequent 12 months, the movie stars Gerwig, George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup, Riley Keough, Jim Broadbent, Patrick Wilson and Emily Mortimer (who co-wrote the script). Meanwhile, Gerwig is in pre-production readying her personal film for Netflix, a Chronicles of Narnia adaptation that producer Amy Pascal not too long ago described as very “rock and roll.”
Per one supply, Baumbach would get began on writing the Barbie sequel, with the 2 passing it backwards and forwards as they do. They confirmed throughout a WGA West Q&A moderated by Judd Apatow in October 2023 that their inventive course of finds them writing individually from each other and sharing drafts alongside the way in which. “Then we hear to listen to if the opposite individual’s laughing,” Gerwig mentioned on the time.
As for what the sequel story may very well be, that’s being stored below wraps, and it’s extremely unlikely that any particulars will leak from Barbie Land to the true world. “I discover at any time when I’ve shared concepts too early, they develop into unhealthy, then the film’s not going to be any good. I don’t like to speak about issues too early or pitch issues or present remedies too early as a result of it feels prefer it’s gonna in some way wreck what the film is,” Gerwig mentioned on that very same WGA panel.
As for Barbie herself, Margot Robbie was the driving drive in getting Barbie off the bottom as star and producer via her LuckyChap banner. And because the movie obtained vital and awards acclaim, together with eight Oscar nominations together with greatest image, she lobbed compliments at her director. “She cracked the code on this movie, as solely she might,” Robbie mentioned in February. “It is such a singular imaginative and prescient, and Greta introduced a lot humanity, creativity, inspiration, magic and pleasure to Barbie.”
The movie wound up profitable one Academy Award — Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell triumphed for greatest authentic tune with their chart-topper “What Was I Made For” — along with a slew of different trophies throughout a really busy awards season. Robbie starred alongside Ryan Gosling as Ken, America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Michael Cera and Ariana Greenblatt, amongst many others.
The story discovered its title character residing a picture-perfect existence in Barbieland till her world received turned the other way up one night time with worries about mortality throughout an in any other case joyful dance social gathering. The woes continued, sending Robbie’s Barbie to the true world on a life-changing journey (with Ken in tow).
Gosling, Robbie and Gerwig on the Barbie set.
Courtesy of Jaap Buitendijk / Warner Bos.
In her THR evaluate, critic Lovia Gyarkye, like many who reviewed the movie upon its launch, cited Gerwig for locating a pointy story in an iconic toy. “Gerwig delights within the richness and weirdness of her materials on this intelligent send-up of Barbie dolls and their fraught legacy. It’s spectacular how a lot the director, identified for her shrewd and narratively exact dramas, has match into a company film,” wrote Gyarkye who singled out Gerwig and Baumbach’s “sensible screenplay.”
In addition to Barbie, Gerwig and Baumbach collaborated on the scripts for Mistress America and Frances Ha, each of which he directed. Meanwhile, Gerwig wrote and directed Little Women and Lady Bird (touchdown Oscar nods for every of these scripts), and Baumbach wrote and directed White Noise, Marriage Story, The Meyerowitz Stories, While We’re Young, Greenberg, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Margot on the Wedding and The Squid and the Whale, amongst different movies. He obtained Oscar nods for his work on Marriage Story and The Squid and the Whale along with Barbie.
Their collaboration on Barbie laid the groundwork for it changing into essentially the most profitable movie of the 12 months, ending at No. 1 on the field workplace. So, the sequel query all the time appeared much less “What about?” and one thing extra alongside the strains of, “When?”
“There’s a tone and a humor and a pleasure, and clearly the world is so stunning,” Gerwig instructed People forward of the primary movie’s launch when requested a few second installment. “I wish to return to Barbie Land.”
