‘Barbie’ has been a household name for generations, from doctor barbie to astronaut barbie. Along with numerous animated versions of Barbie, there is now a live-action movie coming out on July 21, 2023! This will be the first live-action movie of the Barbie franchise. Greta Gerwig, along with Noah Baumbach are the directors. The movie has allegedly been in the works since 2015 after a Sony email leaked that Margot Robbie would be Barbie. (Gonzales, Legardye 2022.) 

Although the cast list has not been revealed, there has been some confirmed casting on the Variety Instagram account. Margot Robbie was confirmed as Barbie on April 26, 2022, and Ryan Gosling as Ken confirmed on June 15, 2022. Other cast members include Will Ferrell as the CEO of a toy company, Kate McKinnon, Michael Cera, Emma Mackey, America Ferrera, Alexandra Shipp, Ariana Greenblatt, Emerald Fennell, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Sharon Rooney, Anna Cruz Kayne, Ritu Arya, Connor Swindells, Jamie Demetriou, and Marisa Abela.  

There won’t just be one Barbie and one Ken because according to The New York Times journalist Kyle Buchanan, he stated in a series of tweets that there would be multiple people playing different versions of Barbie. Issa Rae and Hari Nef would play alternative versions of the Barbie doll, whereas Simu Lui and Ncuti Gatwa would play the Ken doll.

The first trailer for the Barbie movie came out on December 15, 2022, after much anticipation and excitement. No one knows the plot of the movie, but we do know that it will not be your typical Barbie movie. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Margot confirmed. “People immediately have an idea of, ‘Oh, Margot is playing Barbie, I know what that is,'” she said, “But our goal is to be like, ‘Whatever you’re thinking, we’re going to give you something totally different—the thing you didn’t know you wanted.'”