Summary
- Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach address the possibility of a Ken spinoff movie, saying they can’t comment on it, with Gerwig then adding “I guess we’ll see.”
- Ryan Gosling’s Ken was a major highlight of Barbie, suggesting that a spinoff following his character could be effective.
- That being said, much of the joy of Ken comes from his dynamic with Barbie and Gosling’s on-screen chemistry with Margot Robbie, which would seemingly be absent from a spinoff.
Barbie director and co-writer Greta Gerwig addresses whether Ryan Gosling’s Ken will get his own spinoff movie. Hitting theaters this past summer, the movie based on the iconic Mattel doll of the same name made a big splash with audiences and critics alike. The Barbie cast includes Margot Robbie as the eponymous doll, but it was Gosling’s hilarious performance as Ken that stole the show in many scenes.
Now, in a recent interview with 60 Minutes Overtime, Gerwig and co-writer Noah Baumbach offer up cryptic responses regarding whether a Barbie spinoff movie following Ken could be coming in the future. While neither Gerwig nor Baumbach explicitly reveal anything, the nature of their comments certainly suggest that conversations could be happening behind the scenes. Check out their comments below when asked about the possibility of a Ken spinoff:
Noah Baumbach: “We can’t comment on that.”
Greta Gerwig: “I can’t comment on that. I mean the truth is … I guess we’ll see.”
Would A Ken Spinoff Movie Work?
From the first viral Barbie trailers, it looked like Gosling would be unleashing a truly hilarious performance as the utterly clueless but lovable Barbie companion doll. The full film certainly delivered in this respect, and Gosling emerged as one of the most memorable aspects of the movie. Gosling’s “I’m Just Ken” song quickly became a highlight of the film, and the song would go on to be streamed more than 70 million times on Spotify in the months after the movie’s release.
Humor alone, of course, isn’t enough to carry a spinoff movie. Thankfully, Barbie also gives Ken a fairly moving character arc, tracking the doll as he seeks purpose in life and a real identity beyond just “beach”. The combination of these two elements and the open-ended nature of Barbie’s ending as it relates to Ken means there’s already some strong groundwork in place for a continuation of his story.
That being said, a major part of Barbie‘s massive success is due to the combined talents of Gosling and Robbie. The chemistry between the two actors and the dynamic between their characters is crucial to the film, and it’s unclear if a Ken spinoff would resonate if one of these ingredients was missing. There was certainly some doubt at first whether a Barbie movie could work and include an emotionally-satisfying story, but Gerwig and Baumbach very much proved these doubts wrong. This is reason enough to be confident that the duo could deliver a Ken-centric story with a similar impact.
Source: 60 Minutes Overtime
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Barbie
- Release Date:
- 2023-07-21
- Director:
- Greta Gerwig
- Cast:
- Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Simu Liu, Ariana Greenblatt, Helen Mirren, Nicola Coughlan, John Cena, Will Ferrell, Ritu Arya, Michael Cera, America Ferrera, Alexandra Shipp, Kate McKinnon
- Rating:
- PG-13
- Runtime:
- 114 Minutes
- Genres:
- Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
- Writers:
- Noah Baumbach, Greta Gerwig
- Budget:
- $100 Million
- Studio(s):
- LuckyChap Entertainment, Mattel Films, Heyday Films
- Distributor(s):
- Warner Bros. Pictures
- Franchise(s):
- Barbie
