Warner Bros have released footage of Margot Robbie playing world-famous doll Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken Doll in the first trailer for the upcoming live-action film.
The film is from Oscar-nominated actress and director Greta Gerwig, who co-wrote the script with her husband and filmmaker Noah Baumbach.
The trailer for the film, which is set for release on July 21, 2023, opened with a comical parody of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which included children throwing and breaking their baby dolls after seeing the giant Robbie Barbie doll.
Narrating the teaser clip, Dame Helen Mirren said: “Since the beginning of time, since the first little girl ever existed, there have been dolls. But the dolls were always and forever baby dolls, until…”
The clip see’s a smiling Robbie, sporting a black and white striped swimming costume, red lipstick and gold hoop earrings, slowly sliding her white sunglasses down her nose and winking at the camera as the young girls smash up their baby dolls and throw them into the air.
The trailer immediately transitions to bright pink and blue scenes with Robbie overlooking the neighbourhood and waving waving from the Barbie Dreamhouse.
It also features Gosling wearing a black fringed ensemble outfit surrounded by a group of friends wearing sports gear, seemingly playing Lacrosse.
#BARBIEJuly 21, 2023Only in theaters pic.twitter.com/mauCGpizD1
— Warner Bros. Pictures (@wbpictures) April 26, 2022
Australian actress Robbie previously said Barbie, which was launched in 1959, “comes with a lot of baggage” and “a lot of nostalgic connections”.
She told British Vogue: “But with that come a lot of exciting ways to attack it.
“People generally hear ‘Barbie’ and think, ‘I know what that movie is going to be,’ and then they hear that Greta Gerwig is writing and directing it, and they’re like, ‘Oh, well, maybe I don’t…’”
Filmmaker Gerwig was nominated for the best director and best original screenplay Oscars for 2017 coming-of-age drama Lady Bird and scored a nod for best adapted screenplay with 2019’s Little Women.
The film is a joint project between Warner Bros and Barbie manufacturer Mattel.