Margot Robbie in Barbie throws back to A Space Odyssey

Greta Gerwig has swindled us all with the first trailer for her upcoming film.

Greta Gerwig has swindled us all with the first trailer for her upcoming film.

After months of feverishly poring over set photos of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling roller skating in brilliant neon spandex, the first teaser for Greta Gerwig’s upcoming Barbie film is here.

What is a former darling of indie cinema turned Oscar nominee going to do with a live-action film about Mattel’s most beloved doll? If you’re hoping the trailer would shed light on this magenta mystery… you’re out of luck. 

Greta Gerwig has swindled us all with a trailer paying homage to Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey.

“Since the beginning of time, since the first little girl ever existed, there have been dolls,” Helen Mirren narrates (a particularly satisfying casting choice, when one considers her narration work as Deep Thought in The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy.) 

“But the dolls were always and forever baby dolls, until…” 

Duuuuhhhh, duhhhhh, duh, duuuuuuuh.

One wink to rule them all.

 A towering Margot Robbie, donning the same shoulderless black-and-white striped bikini as the very first Barbie doll, released in 1959, looms over a gaggle of young girls. With a single wink, Barbie ignites chaos. The girls begin violently smashing their inferior baby dolls. 

We’re then briefly transported to the flamboyant, deliriously colourful, and decadently camp world that Barbie and her friends inhabit. Ryan Gosling, who plays Ken, is all leathered up in a fringe dress and fingerless gloves, whilst Issa Rae, dons a hot-pink jumpsuit and sash in a version of “President Barbie.” 

“People generally hear ‘Barbie’ and think, ‘I know what that movie is going to be, and then they hear that Greta Gerwig is writing and directing it, and they’re like, ‘Oh, well, maybe I don’t,” Margot Robbie previously said of the film. 

During a recent interview on the At Your Service podcast with Dua Lipa, who is also involved in the film, Gerwig admitted that developing the film “felt like vertigo.” 

Gerwig, who co-wrote the script with her partner and collaborator Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story) said, “Where do you even begin, and what would be the story?,” she said. 

“I think it was that feeling I had was knowing that it would be really interesting terror. Usually that’s where the best stuff is, where you’re like, ‘I am terrified of that.’

"Anything where you’re like, ‘This could be a career-ender’—then you’re like, ‘I should probably do it.”

The film will also star Sex Education alumni Emma Mackay and Ncuti Gatwa, Industry breakout Marisa Abela, leading Marvel man Shang-Chi's Simu Liu, Bridgerton's Nicola Coughlan, Hari Nef, Will Ferrell, Michael Cera, Kate McKinnon, Emerald Fennell and more.

Robbie's LuckyChap Entertainment is behind the film's production. She made her producing debut with I, Tonya, and has been behind productions like Hulu's Dollface, Netflix's Maid, and the Emerald Fennell-directed Promising Young Woman.

Barbie will arrive in cinemas on July 21, 2023.