Barbie Has a Post-Credits Scene Now: Explained

The biggest movie of the year hit the biggest screen last week with Barbie arrived on IMAX for a special, one week screening engagement, but it wasn’t just the movie fans have turned out in droves to see played on a much larger screen. The IMAX cut of the film is a little different, featuring bonus footage and a post-credits scene as well. Now, with that IMAX version having arrived last Friday, that post credits scene has been revealed and it’s both hilarious and poignant — and gives audiences a look at a character they didn’t get to see on screen in the film’s initial release.

Warning: spoilers for the IMAX version of Barbie beyond this point.

While the regular theatrical version of Barbie did not have a post credits scene, the IMAX version did and it includes a cameo from Helen Mirren. Mirren played the narrator in the film and, as such, was heard at various times throughout the Greta Gerwig directed film, but not heard. In the new, post-credits scene, Mirren’s Narrator walks in on a very pregnant Midge (Emerald Fennell) as she is giving birth. The moment is both hilarious as Midge was a bit of a running joke throughout the movie, but also touching as motherhood was also one of the elements of the film itself as see between Gloria (America Ferrera) and her daughter Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt) as well as with Barbie’s (Margot Robbie) own story in a touching moment at the end of the film where she has a transformative moment with Barbie creator and Mattel co-founder Ruth Handler (Rhea Perlman.) The scene also functions as a bit of a reference to the real-world controversy about the Midge doll, which was discontinued in 2002 after the launch of the “Happy Family” line of dolls that featured a pregnant Midge and led some consumers to claim that Midge was inappropriate for children and promoted teen pregnancy.

There Are Other Post Credit Scenes and Features As Well

Mirren’s cameo and Midge’s delivery isn’t the only post-credit feature for fans sticking around during the IMAX. In addition to that scene, the IMAX presentation also features a blooper reel, various moments of Ryan Gosling ad-libbing as Ken during the film, and even a moment where Gosling’s Ken offers up his own spin on Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, the aptly remixed “Boys Just Wanna Have Fun”. Gosling notably had musical numbers in the film, including the hilarious Matchbox Twenty cover “Push” and the viral hit “I’m Just Ken.”

“When I got the call for Barbie, they told me, ‘Ken’s by the fireside, he’s playing the song and it’s his favorite band.’ So, I did this thinking I’d be the butt of the joke, and I was fine with that. I’m pretty thick-skinned,” Matchbox Twenty’s Rob Thomas explained previously. “But Julie Greenwald (from Atlantic Records) came to the Hollywood Bowl a month or two ago. She had just seen the movie and was like, ‘You come out of it loving Ken and loving ‘Push.” And I was like, ‘Aww. Alright, really good!’”

What is Barbie About? 

In Barbie, to live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken. From Oscar-nominated writer/director Greta Gerwig comes Barbie, which has already arrived in theaters. Barbie stars Oscar-nominees Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, alongside America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Michael Cera, Ariana Greenblatt, Issa Rae, Rhea Perlman, and Will Ferrell. The film also stars Ana Cruz Kayne, Emma Mackey, Hari Nef, Alexandra Shipp, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, Scott Evans, Jamie Demetriou, Connor Swindells, Sharon Rooney, Nicola Coughlan, Ritu Arya, Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Dua Lipa and Oscar-winner Helen Mirren. Gerwig directed Barbie from a screenplay by Gerwig & Oscar nominee Noah Baumbach, based on Barbie by Mattel. 

Have you seen the IMAX version of Barbie? What did you think of the post-credit scenes and features? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.