First Barbie Teaser Trailer Shows There's One Doll To Rule Them All

Warner Bros. has offered a first look at Barbie's world with a teaser trailer for the Margot Robbie-starring film. The video starts by making quite a bold claim: "Since the first little girl ever existed, there have been dolls."

Barbie, though, apparently broke the mold of them always being baby dolls. This prehistoric intro riffs on Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and may or may not give us an idea of the tongue-in-cheek tone of the movie. Afterward it gives way to a collage of scenes from the film. For instance, the teaser trailer shows that Barbie does appear to inhabit a bright, pink plastic world. We also see Ken (Ryan Gosling) engaged in some sort of physical sport--wearing quite the black ensemble with headband--and Issa Rae's unknown character in a president sash fist-pumping.

Simu Liu, star of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, is spotted doing quite the dance number in the teaser trailer. And then the video ends with Robbie's Barbie also busting a move. Other cast members for the film include America Ferrera, Alexandra Shipp, Will Ferrell, and Michael Cera.

Director Greta Gerwig, who previously helmed Lady Bird and Little Women, co-wrote the script with Marriage Story filmmaker Noah Baumbach. The pair also recently teamed up for the Netflix movie White Noise. Baumbach wrote and directed it, with Gerwig starring alongside Adam Driver.

The Barbie movie has long been in gestation. In 2016, Trainwreck star Amy Schumer was reportedly in talks to star in the movie, as well as co-write the script. That version of the film supposedly would have taken a page out of Enchanted, with Barbie being kicked out of Barbieland and coming to the real world. Gerwig signed on to direct Barbie back in July 2021.

Barbie will premiere in theaters on July 21, 2023.