The box office bout of the year is really starting to heat up, with Oppenheimer and Barbie looking all but ready to combine for the ultimate, already-iconic summer blockbuster one-two punch. Indeed, between the artistic merits on every side of both films, and the meme-worthy contrast they have with one another, this is one narrative that won’t be going away any time soon.
Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer fired the last shot with a bone-crunchingly delectable trailer earlier this month, so it’s high time that Greta Gerwig’s Barbie responded, and judging by its new trailer, it’s clear that this mysterious fantasy romcom isn’t messing around.
Indeed, we weren’t expecting this new sneak peek to add “existential” to the list of promises made by this movie (a list formerly comprised of “hilarious” and “colorful”), but leave it to the writing duo of Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach to throw us a curveball like that.
Barbie follows the titular children’s doll as she ventures on a self-love journey after being kicked out of Barbieland for not being perfect. Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling star as Barbie and Ken, while the likes of John Cena, Ncuti Gatwa, Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Alexandra Shipp, Dua Lipa, and Ritu Arya portray different variants of the dolls. Forget multiverses of madness; we’re all here for the multiverse of glamour.
Elsewhere, Michael Cera and Helen Mirren star, as does Will Ferrell as the CEO of Mattel.
Barbie and Oppenheimer will release to theaters on July 21, when the real final battle will commence.
