The First Barbie Teaser Is Out, and It Pays Homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey

The first teaser trailer for Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie is out, and it features an homage to Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 classic 2001: A Space Odyssey.

“Since the beginning of time, since the first little girl ever existed, there have been dolls,” a narrator says in the trailer for Barbie. “But the dolls were always and forever baby dolls. Until…”

Set in a desert landscape obviously intended as a spoof on the Dawn of Man sequence in 2001, Gerwig’s version replaces the apes with little girls playing with baby dolls.

Enter Margot Robbie dressed in the black and white striped swimsuit outfit worn by the iconic, first-ever Barbie doll released by Mattel in 1959. She stands as tall as a giant in the desert landscape as the little girls stare up at her, much like the large black monolith discovered by the apes in 2001.

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The eyes of the little girls grow wide as they see Barbie for the first time. And again, in another homage to Kubrick, they toss their baby dolls aside, slamming them against the rocks like the apes smashing animal bones in the Dawn of Man scene.

Cut to Barbie looking over her kingdom, followed by scenes of Ryan Gosling as Ken, Simu Liu and Issa Rae. Other cast members include Will Ferrell, Kate McKinnon, Michael Cera, America Ferrera, Ncuti Gatwa, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Rhea Perlman, Sharon Rooney, Scott Evans, Ana Cruz Kayne, Ritu Arya, Jamie Demetriou, Emma Mackey, Connor Swindells, Nicola Coughlan, and Emerald Fennell.

Gerwig, known for Ladybird and Little Women, co-wrote the screenplay with her real-life husband Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story, White Noise).

Barbie arrives in theaters on July 21, 2023.

Watch the sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey below, and watch the teaser trailer for Barbie above.

Main Image: Margot Robbie in Barbie. Photo Credit: Warner Bros.