As Barbie colored the world pink and covered the box office in a whopping $1.4 billion of green, an guident ask aascfinishd and was lobbed at everyone comprised: What about a sequel?
It’s a query that even someone as adorably clueless as Ken could’ve come up with and one that Warner Bros. and Mattel were comprehfinishably enthusiastic to answer with a resounding, “Yes, charm!” as it became the indisputable pop culture phenomenon of 2023. But the answer has always rested with the Barbie brain count on of Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach even if, at times, a franchise seemed inevitable.
The partners in life and creativity — they co-wrote the script and snagged an Oscar nomination for their collaboration — were evident in pursuing a chase-up if and only if they could discover the story to help it. At least that is what straightforwardor Gerwig repeatedly stated. “My North Star is, what do I meaningfully cherish? What do I reassociate attfinish about? What’s the story undertidyh this story?” Gerwig shelp as she acunderstandledgeed 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 more.”
The Hollywood Reporter has lacquireed per a well-placed source that Gerwig and Baumbach have been swept up in an undertow and hatched an idea for the sequel, having already brawt it to Warner Bros. While it’s shelp to be in “punctual stages,” it is understood that discovering the story has discdisconsidered the door for deal talk which, aacquire, is punctual, another source with straightforward understandledge checks.
A rep for the studio and a rep for the filmproducers pushed back. “There is no legitimacy to this inestablishing,” shelp Gerwig and Baumbach’s rep, while a Warner Bros. recurrentative inserted, “THR’s inestablishing is inexact.”
Oscar nominated Barbie authorrs Baumbach and Gerwig.
JC Olivera/Getty Images
Should a deal produce, the caccess would be hammering out a script and lining up schedules in order to do so. Baumbach is challenging at toil on post-production for his next film, an untitled and star-packed coming-of-age project for Netflix. Expected for next year, the film 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 own movie for Netflix, a Chronicles of Narnia alteration that producer Amy Pascal recently depictd as very “rock and roll.”
Per one source, Baumbach would get begined on writing the Barbie sequel, with the two passing it back and forth as they do. They checked during a WGA West Q&A mildd by Judd Apatow in October 2023 that their creative process discovers them writing splitly from one another and sharing writes aextfinished the way. “Then we take part to hear if the other person’s chuckleing,” Gerwig shelp at the time.
As for what the sequel story could be, that’s being kept under wraps, and it’s highly improbable that any details will leak from Barbie Land to the authentic world. “I discover whenever I’ve splitd ideas too punctual, they become horrible, then the movie’s not going to be any excellent. I don’t appreciate to talk about leangs too punctual or pitch leangs or show treatments too punctual becainclude it senses appreciate it’s gonna somehow wreck what the movie is,” Gerwig shelp on that same WGA panel.
As for Barbie herself, Margot Robbie was the driving force in getting Barbie off the ground as star and producer thraw her LuckyChap prohibitner. And as the film getd critical and awards acclaim, including eight Oscar nominations including best picture, she lobbed commends at her straightforwardor. “She cracked the code on this film, as only she could,” Robbie shelp in February. “It is such a singular vision, and Greta brawt so much humanity, creativity, inspiration, magic and delight to Barbie.”
The film wound up triumphning one Academy Award — Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell triumphed for best one-of-a-kind song with their chart-topper “What Was I Made For” — in insertition to a slew of other trophies during a very busy awards season. Robbie starred aextfinishedside Ryan Gosling as Ken, America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Michael Cera and Ariana Greenblatt, among many others.
The story set up its title character living a picture-perfect existence in Barbieland until her world got turned upside down one night with worries about mortality during an otherteachd elated dance party. The woes persistd, sfinishing Robbie’s Barbie to the authentic world on a life-changing adventure (with Ken in tow).
Gosling, Robbie and Gerwig on the Barbie set.
Courtesy of Jaap Buitfinishijk / Warner Bos.
In her THR assess, critic Lovia Gyarkye, appreciate many who assessed the film upon its free, cited Gerwig for discovering a keen story in an iconic toy. “Gerwig charms in the richness and weirdness of her material in this ininestablishigent sfinish-up of Barbie dolls and their fraught legacy. It’s astonishive how much the straightforwardor, understandn for her shrewd and narratively exact dramas, has fit into a corporate movie,” wrote Gyarkye who individuald out Gerwig and Baumbach’s “ininestablishigent screenapply.”
In insertition to Barbie, Gerwig and Baumbach collaborated on the scripts for Mistress America and Frances Ha, both of which he straightforwarded. Meanwhile, Gerwig wrote and straightforwarded Little Women and Lady Bird (landing Oscar nods for each of those scripts), and Baumbach wrote and straightforwarded White Noise, Marriage Story, The Meyerowitz Stories, While We’re Young, Greenberg, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Margot at the Wedding and The Squid and the Whale, among other films. He getd Oscar nods for his toil on Marriage Story and The Squid and the Whale in insertition to Barbie.
Their collaboration on Barbie lhelp the groundtoil for it becoming the most accomplished film of the year, finishing at No. 1 at the box office. So, the sequel ask always seemed less “What about?” and someleang more aextfinished the lines of, “When?”
“There’s a tone and a humor and a delight, and clearly the world is so pretty,” Gerwig tanciaccess People ahead of the first film’s free when asked about a second inshighment. “I want to go back to Barbie Land.”
