There was incredible buzz surrounding “Barbenheimer” the release of both WB’s Barbie movie and Universal’s Oppenheimer the same weekend. And in the end the hype turned out to be quite real, as both movies succeeded on their opening weekend, making for one of the top movie weekends of all time. Considering the power these two movies had separately, one has to wonder what they could do if you combined them. Could Cillian Murphy join a potential Barbie sequel?
It seems unlikely that we’ll get a sequel to Oppenheimer. That movie told a complete story and writer/director Christopher Nolan generally doesn’t make sequels that aren’t Batman movies. But considering Barbie had the best opening weekend of any movie this year, a sequel to that movie seems quite likely. And Cillian Murphy is open to joining that film as a Ken. Speaking with omeleteve, Murphy said he would absolutely be willing to appear in a Barbie 2 if the script was right. He responded…
Would I play a Ken in Barbie 2? Sure, yeah. Let’s read the script, let’s have a conversation
It seems like the next obvious progression for Barbenheimer. If it was announced that Cillian Murphy had joined a Barbie sequel the Barbenheimer jokes would certainly begin again, and at the very least that wouldn’t hurt the sequel's chances. For the record, both Matt Damon and Emily Blunt, who are part of the incredible Oppenheimer cast were also willing to appear in a theoretical sequel as a Ken and Barbie respectively, because they want to work with Greta Gerwig.
It’s rare for studios to release movies that compete with each other at the box office. Release days are usually set years in advance specifically so that studios can lock down a particular date for a particular movie. There’s a fear that any significant competition could reduce the cherished opening weekend box office. And that may have technically happened with Barbie and Oppenheimer; maybe each movie would have done even better if they’d had the weekend to themselves. But the hype surrounding the two films releasing together, to admittedly different audiences, was enough to carry both through to significant success.
Especially after seeing how the Kens were portrayed in Barbie, Cillian Murphy probably isn’t an actor that you would think of playing one, but then, maybe that’s why it would be so brilliant. And the first Barbie made so many pop culture jokes that the sequel could probably find a way to reference Oppenheimer in a hilarious way.
If there is a Barbie 2, and after that opening weekend, such a thing seems quite likely, it will almost certainly mean new Kens and new Barbies, so why not Cillian Murphy?
