The teaser trailer for the much-anticipated new take on Barbie has landed, giving us our first official look at Margot Robbie in action.
The Suicide Squad star takes on the role of the divisive doll, originally launched in 1959, in a satirical film directed by Greta Gerwig based on a script she wrote with Noah Baumbach. The two previously collaborated on scripts for Frances Ha and Mistress America.
“People immediately have an idea of, ‘Oh, Margot is playing Barbie, I know what that is,’ but our goal is to be like, ‘Whatever you’re thinking, we’re going to give you something totally different – the thing you didn’t know you wanted,’ Robbie said to the Hollywood Reporter. She added that she hoped the film will “provoke a thoughtful conversation”.
The starry cast also includes Ryan Gosling as Ken as well as Will Ferrell, Issa Rae, Kate McKinnon, Simu Liu, Michael Cera, America Ferrera, Ncuti Gatwa, Emerald Fennell, Rhea Perlman and Kingsley Ben-Adir.
Ferrell, who plays a Mattel CEO, has called the film “the ultimate example of high art and low art” and “an amazing comment on male patriarchy and women in society”.
Barbie had originally been in the works in 2015 with Oscar-winning Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody before it moved to Amy Schumer in 2016 who was set to star and co-write. She dropped out in 2017 and later said: “They definitely didn’t want to do it the way I wanted to do it, the only way I was interested in doing it.”
It was then set to star Anne Hathaway before it finally went to Robbie, who asked Gerwig to get involved.
The film is set to be followed by another Mattel adaptation, a take on Polly Pocket written and directed by Lena Dunham and starring Lily Collins. Dunham confirmed in October she is still working on the script. Other Mattel films in development include Masters of the Universe and Hot Wheels.
Gerwig made her directorial debut with Lady Bird, which earned five Oscar nominations before she brought a new adaptation of Little Women in 2019, which garnered six Oscar nods.
Robbie’s latest film, Babylon, co-starring Brad Pitt, hits cinemas this month and she will be next seen in Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City alongside Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson and Tilda Swinton.
Barbie is set to land in cinemas in July 2023.
