Barbie is currently the highest-grossing movie of 2023, and it’s a big frontrunner this awards season. The movie is expected to earn some Academy Award nominations, and many think Ryan Gosling will receive a nod for Best Supporting Actor for playing Ken. Considering the major success of the film, fans are wondering if Warner Bros. and Mattel are going to make a sequel. It would be hard to imagine another Barbie without Greta Gerwig at the helm, but the director did recently play coy when asked about a Ken-centric follow-up. During London’s BFI Southbank on Friday, Gosling and his Barbie co-star America Ferrera dodged some questions about Barbie 2 (via Variety). While they claim to know nothing about a follow-up, Gosling does have an idea of what kind of Ken he wants to play next.
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“Oh, I’m not going anywhere near that. We really know nothing,” Gosling said when a fan asked about a sequel.
“We have no information,” Ferrera added. “I will say, what Greta and Margot have said is they did not set out to make a franchise. They put it all out on the table. Every bit of it that they loved and that they knew to do, they did. Which is refreshing, right? We’re not setting it up for 20 years of Barbie movies. But then again, I know nothing, so there might be 20 years [of Barbie]… or a Ken spinoff?”
“Can it be a husky Ken?” Gosling asked. “Can I play Husky Ken, like Sandwich Ken? Can I play that Ken next time?”
Ryan Gosling Reacts To “I’m Just Ken” Being a Success:
Barbie features songs from many talented artists including Billie Eilish, Ava Max, Charli XCX, Dominic Fike, Dua Lipa, FIFTY FIFTY, Gayle, HAIM, Ice Spice, Kali, KAROL G, Khalid, Lizzo, Nicki Minaj, PinkPantheress, Tame Impala, and The Kid LAROI. Mark Ronson served as the soundtrack’s producer alongside Kevin Weaver and Brandon Davis. In September, the producers were joined by music supervisor George Drakoulias for a special conversation at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. During the event, Ronson spoke about one of the biggest hits of the album, “I’m Just Ken,” which was performed by Gosling.
“[Greta Gerwig] sent me this funny PDF that her and Noah [Baumbach] had scribbled, like Barbie’s song should be about the world is perfect and everything’s great and there are no shadows and everything’s great because everything’s always great and that will be great. Like just all these silly lyrics,” Ronson explained (via THR). “The Ken song was like, ‘I love horses but they also make me mad.’ And it said Barbie and Ken hit songs, which is always like a funny thing to send to a songwriter, ‘Just give us two hit songs.’”
“Next thing I know, she’s like, ‘Ryan wants to sing the song.’ And I was like, ‘Really?’” Ronson recalled after sending the initial demo to Gerwig. “She goes, ‘Yeah, he said it speaks very deeply to him.’ And I was like, ‘Is he being ironic?’ And she was like, ‘I don’t think so.’”
“He kind of feels like someone who doesn’t get caught up in the hype from the little bit that now I know about him,” Ronson shared, explaining that he would send Gosling updates on the milestones reached by “I’m Just Ken.” “Even he’d be like, ‘This is so surreal, I don’t even know what to tell you.’ I think he’s a real musician, he loves music, and I think he was really touched by that and like when Slash played on it, you know? So there’s certain things that he’s been really, I think, excited about.”
Would you like to see a Barbie sequel or a Ken spinoff? Tell us in the comments!
