Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling & Greta Gerwig don’t have deals for Barbie 2, which is a surprise as the first movie is about to gross $1B.
With Barbie well on the way to grossing $1 billion at the worldwide box office, audiences have been wondering just what’s going on with Barbie 2. However, it may be a while before we hear anything about a possible follow-up as THR has reported that the talent involved (Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling and Greta Gerwig) do not have deals in place for a sequel.
This is pretty rare for a movie based on a major IP, considering that franchises such as Star Wars or Marvel typically have their talent sign multi-picture deals, whether they wind up being used or not. In addition to starring in Barbie, Margot Robbie also produced the film through her LuckyChap Entertainment banner. While she could return as a producer for Barbie 2, she has no obligation to star in the movie. The same goes for Ryan Gosling, who typically doesn’t do sequels anyway.
Barbie director Greta Gerwig, who also co-wrote the movie with Noah Baumbach, also doesn’t have a deal for the sequel. THR states that Warner Bros. did try to start talks with Gerwig several months ago, but that her representatives decided to put it off until the movie was released. Now that Barbie is about to hit $1 billion, that may prove to be one hell of a smart movie. The ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike naturally means that any official sequel talk will have to wait, but when they do, Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, and Greta Gerwig have found themselves in a very enviable position.
Margot Robbie actually predicted that Barbie would gross $1 billion when she first pitched the project, although at the time she thought she had oversold it. “I think my pitch in the green-light meeting was the studios have prospered so much when they’re brave enough to pair a big idea with a visionary director,” Robbie said. “And then I gave a series of examples like, ‘dinosaurs and [Steven] Spielberg,’ that and that, that and that – pretty much naming anything that’s been incredible and made a ton of money for the studios over the years. And I was like, ‘And now you’ve got Barbie and Greta Gerwig.’ And I think I told them that it’d make a billion dollars, which maybe I was overselling, but we had a movie to make, okay?!“
Barbie is currently playing in theaters, so be sure to check out a review from our own Chris Bumbray and let us know what you thought of the movie as well.