Come on, Barbie — let’s go party. The moviegoers who showed up for the first screenings of James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water were delighted to see the very first trailer for Greta Gerwig’s buzzy Barbie movie starring Margot Robbie as the Mattel doll and Ryan Gosling as her boyfriend, Ken. Now that minute-and-a-half long teaser has hit the internet and is giving fans a reason to look forward to the summer of 2023. (Watch the trailer above.)
Gerwig hints at her film’s Lego Movie-esque self-aware comic tone with a knowing — and hilarious— homage to Stanley Kubrick’s seminal sci-fi masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Narrated by Helen Mirren, the opening scenes transport us back to a prehistoric landscape where young girls are playing with boring baby dolls. As the opening chords of “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” kick in, Mirren teases the arrival of a monolithic new figure.
Cut to a giant-sized Robbie towering over the landscape. Looking directly into the camera, her swimsuit-clad Barbie offers a wink that leads the girls to smash their plastic infants in favor of the new toy in their midst. That wink also looks to be one of Barbie’s signature lewks in the movie — in a party scene that closes the teaser, she once again winks into the camera.
With months to go until its July 21 release, Gerwig is keeping the plot of the film close to the vest. Instead, the teaser is more of a vibe, offering such brightly-colored images as Barbie standing on the deck of her Dream House gazing out over a plastic-looking town, and Gosling’s Ken apparently attending some kind of wild toy boat party. We also catch brief glimpses of Issa Rae and Simu Liu, who are reportedly playing different versions of Barbie and Ken.
Already beloved among audiences for her coming of age hits, Lady Bird and Little Women, Barbie represents Gerwig’s first stab at crafting a blockbuster out of major studio IP. And based on the early Twitter reaction, this movie may just launch a franchise to compete with Cameron’s blue cat people.
Barbie premieres July 21 in theaters
