The cast of Margot Robbie’s live-action Barbie movie is getting more and more interesting by the day, with Issa Rae and Michael Cera becoming the latest big names to sign onto the Greta Gerwig-helmed project.
People revealed the news exclusively on Thursday, though it’s unclear what roles Rae and Cera will play, which is par for the course as plot details are being held tightly under wraps. Robbie, of course, will play the titular Mattel doll with Ryan Gosling starring as Barbie’s towheaded boyfriend, Ken.
Rae and Cera join an already robust cast featuring America Ferrara, Kate McKinnon, Alexandra Shipp (Tick, Tick… Boom!), and Simu Liu (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), as well as Will Ferrell and Sex Education star Emma Mackey, who were both likewise announced this week. Ferrell is rumored to be playing “the CEO of a toy company that may or not be Mattel,” according to The Hollywood Reporter, which also reports that “sources indicate that there is a meta aspect to the proceedings.”
The live-action Barbie movie has been in development for nearly a decade. Mattel initially teamed with Sony Pictures to produce the project back in 2014, with Diablo Cody hired to write the following year. Eventually, Amy Schumer was brought aboard to lead and rewrite the screenplay with her sister Kim Caramele but dropped out at the time due to what she said were “scheduling conflicts. (Schumer later said that the studio did not share her vision.)
Finally, in late 2018 Warner Bros. Pictures acquired rights to the project after Sony’s option expired, with Robbie and the husband-wife writing team of Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach brought on shortly after to once again finesse the screenplay.
Barbie is expected to hit theaters sometime next year.
