Greta Gerwig Is Down For Barbie 2 & It's So Obvious Why That's A Massive Mistake
After "Barbie" left the 2024 Oscars with just one win out of its eight nominations — for the stunning ballad "What Was I Made For?," written and performed by Billie Eilish — director and co-writer Greta Gerwig told Deadline's Baz Bamigboye that she's not totally against a sequel. After saying that there's "no resistance" coming from her, Gerwig added, "I'm not dismissing it, I want to do it." Still, she said that the fate of a "Barbie" sequel rests on whether or not Margot Robbie and her other collaborators from the beloved first film would return too.
I'm begging you, Greta. From the bottom of my heart, with everything I have — please, please don't make a "Barbie" sequel.
Sure, there's an infinitesimally small part of me that wants more "Barbie." I love this movie. I saw it three times in theaters and have bullied everyone I know into at least giving it a shot. Everything from Gerwig's direction to her script with Noah Baumbach to the performances to the production design just clicked into place for me. (Why, yes, my water bottle does have a huge sticker on it that says, "Do you guys ever think about dying?") However, a "Barbie" sequel would be a disaster and possibly ruin the film's legacy.
Barbie's story is a closed loop
In case you forgot the way "Barbie" ends — which is to say, with a perfect stinger — here's a quick recap: Stereotypical Barbie, played by Margot Robbie, goes on a journey of self-discovery and realizes she no longer wants to be a doll that represents an idea. She wants to become a real person and create ideas. Along the way, she has to put a stop to Ken's (Ryan Gosling) newfound obsession with the patriarchy (read: horses), largely because he and his fellow Kens overtake Barbie Land and brainwash all of her friends. Ultimately, she becomes a human woman and joins Gloria (America Ferrera) and her family in the real world, triumphantly arriving at her gynecologist's office for her first appointment.
That's a perfect ending. Let's leave it there. Now that the character of Barbie — once a plastic doll that inhabited a fabulously pink, impeccably designed, visually luscious Barbie Land — is a human named Barbara, where would "Barbie 2" even go?! Hey, it's not that I don't trust Greta Gerwig ... Anyone who's seen "Lady Bird" and "Little Women" knows the woman is a genius. Still, I don't really need a second installment where Barbara learns to inhabit the human world. The whole fun of the ending of "Barbie" is that you can laugh at "I'm here to see my gynecologist!" without thinking about its ramifications too much. A sequel would be forced to over-explain everything and all the magic and open-endedness of "Barbie" would be lost as a result.
The Barbie phenomenon was lightning in a bottle
There's another huge reason that a "Barbie" sequel is a terrible idea: the timing of its July 2023 release was nothing short of serendipity. As Margot Robbie told "Oppenheimer" star — and newly-minted Oscar winner — Cillian Murphy in their Actors on Actors segment for Variety, "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" shared a release date because every producer involved was too stubborn to move dates (Robbie included). This ultimately led to the phenomenon known as "Barbenheimer," a unique situation where two radically contrasting yet highly anticipated films made by critical darlings released on the same weekend. Theaters were packed with Nolan fans and people in their best pink outfits for a Barbenheimer journey. Unless some serious planning begins now, it'd be impossible to reproduce this. Barbenheimer fans would likely see this as a repetitive cash grab. Besides, what other film would confidentally claim to be as good as "Oppenheimer?"
An example: when Taylor Swift announced that her Eras Tour concert movie would release on October 13, "The Exorcist: Believer" didn't embrace the potential of an "Exorswift" double feature. Instead, the power of Taylor Swift compelled the "Exorcist" sequel to change its date. Something like Barbenheimer doesn't come around often, and unless Nolan is considering "Oppenheimer 2: More Bombs This Time," "Barbie 2" would feel empty without the fanfare that "Oppenheimer" provided.
Barbie proved that audiences want creative, original stories
Anyone paying attention to the pop culture landscape knows that superhero films have been producing diminishing returns. Both the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Extended Universe are floundering — whimpering, even — as they churn out more origin stories and sequels and hope that people like Spider-Man enough to go see "Madame Web." (Spoiler: They did not.) "Madame Web" bombed at the box office, as did its predecessor "Morbius." You know what didn't bomb at the box office? "Barbie." In fact, it was the highest-grossing film of 2023.
Technically, "Barbie" is based on existing intellectual property. Yes, Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach used the doll's aesthetic as inspiration for their script. But in another sense, the story of "Barbie" is constructed from whole cloth — Baumbach and Gerwig crafted a journey of discovery based on a plastic doll who wears a lot of different outfits. "Barbie" proved that audiences want fresh, interesting, and funny ideas in movies that feel new and exciting — so the very idea of a sequel spits in the face of that.
Currently, Gerwig is working on adapting "Chronicles of Narnia" — so she'll likely already have her hands full with its serialized story for some time. (So, if you're craving seeing Gerwig's version of a sequel, she's making at least two films in this series to watch instead.) Overall, Gerwig has proven herself to be a writer who can beautifully adapt an existing story or idea ("Little Women") as well as make a fully original tale ("Lady Bird"). She's better than "Barbie 2." We all are. Leave "Barbie" alone and make something else amazing.