Barbie was one of the biggest hits in recent memory, and it was also a massive bet by star Margot Robbie and director Greta Gerwig. Now, it seems like Robbie and Gerwig are coming back for more. The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Gerwig and her partner Noah Baumbach, who co-wrote the script for the first movie, have landed on an idea for a sequel, and they’ve already brought it to Warner Bros.
The reporting suggests that this story is in “early stages” and that no official deal is done yet. Reps for both the studio and the filmmakers also pushed back on the report. “There is no legitimacy to this reporting,” Gerwig and Baumbach’s rep claimed. The representative for Warner Bros. was even more succinct: “THR’s reporting is inaccurate.”
If the reporting is accurate, it means that a Barbie sequel could be coming at some point down the road. What’s also clear, though, is that this deal is far from done, and even if Gerwig and Baumbach have come to the studio with an idea, it’s still in its most nascent stages.
Warner Bros. would likely jump at the chance to make a sequel to Barbie, but the question is whether a sequel could recapture the magic that made the first film such a phenomenon. Gerwig would be on board to script this new film, but there is no indication she would return as the director, and it’s also unclear whether Robbie, who produced the first film and recruited Gerwig to write and direct, is even aware that this is happening. For now, then, a sequel still feels far from a sure thing.
