Barbie is one of those movies where most people got it right away, but even the few left behind, upon a rewatch or just even thinking about it, realize that that was, in fact, a perfect movie. Now it’s up to Hollywood to do what it does best and give us a sequel. But so far it’s been complicated.
First of all, when it comes to the script, Barbie wasn’t just another blockbuster where the concept was cooked up by a Warner Bros. executive and handed off to a writer-for-hire who, while occasionally delivering fantastic work, rarely creates something truly unique. Barbie, instead, was written by two of the hottest auteur filmmakers in the business — Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, who just so happen to also be married.
In a WGA interview, the two recounted how they work together, sharing that they often write separate drafts and exchange them over time while eavesdropping to check whether their latest draft made the other one laugh. Greta Gerwig even made the Time 100 2023 list, and with such success comes endless opportunities. So, unfortunately for Barbie fans, the married couple are already deep in different stages of working on their solo projects, with Noah Baumbach in the post-production period of a film with George Clooney as the lead and Gerwig working on the latest adaptation of Chronicles of Narnia.
But that’s not to say that the two have their minds completely off Barbie Land. According to an exclusive report by The Hollywood Reporter, Gerwig and Baumbach have hatched a plan for the sequel to Barbie that they’ve already pitched to the studio and presumably they’re going to start working on it as soon as their schedule opens up and allows them. Early on, after the movie’s success, Margot Robbie, who was the driving force of the entire film as both the star, producer, and the person who handpicked Greta Gerwig for the lucrative position, dampened any hope for a sequel when she told Associated Press they didn’t plan on Barbie being a trilogy and that they put everything in the movie. So a sequel, if it were to happen, still cannot imagine what that would be.
What makes this news complicated instead of a cause for celebration is that, immediately after the news report came out, claims of a new Barbie being in the early stages of development were refuted. Warner Bros. released a statement saying that The Hollywood Reporter’s report is inaccurate, and, moreover, a representative for the duo also added that there’s “no legitimacy” to the reporting.
However, Robbie’s comments actually do make sense. The first Barbie dug deep to find the essence and interpretation of girlhood from the perspective of what Barbie means to the culture, and even the ending was reminiscent of Pinocchio finally becoming a “real boy.” So, it’s understandable for the creators of the film to try and avoid ruining that original movie. We fully understand their hesitation. At the end of the day, the goal is to avoid the fate of the critical disaster that is Joker: Folie à Deux. But maybe the challenge is good enough reason to pursue making the film.
As for what we think the next film is about, as long as it’s surprising and comes from a sincere place just like the original, then we’ll show up at the cinema. They already have Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. It’s very hard to go wrong with a starting point like that.