A short while ago, if anyone had suggested a Barbie movie, starring Oscar nominees such as Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling and directed and co-written by Oscar nominee Greta Gerwig, could possibly be a thing, they would have been laughed out of the room. Yet, now that is precisely what is coming, and Will Ferrell has now been added to the list of names involved in the project, which is becoming quite extensive and now includes Simu Liu, Emma Mackey, Kate McKinnon, Alexandra Shipp, and America Ferrera.
Will Ferrell hasn’t had the most remarkable run of movies recently, with many of his films receiving the harsh end of critics' tongues, but he has been attaching himself to a number of high profile projects that could finally put him back on the right side of a Rotten Tomatoes score. The Barbie movie joins his upcoming slate, which will kick off this Christmas when he stars opposite Ryan Reynolds in Spirited on Apple TV+. So far, there has been no word on who Ferrell will be playing in the movie.
The live-action Barbie movie will have been in development for almost a decade by the time the film is released next year. Having started out as a Sony project in 2014, it took two years to start looking for a star, which in 2016 looked like it was going to be Amy Schumer. A year later, Schumer dropped out and it looked like Anne Hathaway would be stepping up to become the iconic doll. However, that didn’t progress either, and soon after, the film moved from Sony to Warner Bros. and in 2019 Robbie was cast in the lead. The movie is now is very much on track to be a reality in 2023.
Greta Gerwig is Set to Bring Out a New Side of Barbie
Considering the type of movies that Greta Gerwig has previously worked on, a movie about the all American blonde Barbie seems like it couldn’t be any further removed from her ballpark, but in a way, that is probably the only thing that is going to stop this from being a very predictable movie. Instead, what is coming is a movie that will catch a lot of people off guard, be an intriguing film that a lot of people will just feel they have to see to believe it and will reimagine Barbie has she is known.
There is no doubt that many of the details about Barbie will be kept under wraps by Warner Bros. for some time to come, which means we may not find out how the likes of Will Ferrell will fit into the narrative. The only thing that we know is that this version of Barbie may be blonde, but that is probably where the similarities to many animated children’s specials and TV movies ends. This Barbie will have a story to tell that will go beyond that of a child’s plaything and could end up redefining the doll for a new generation.