Barbie Sequel Remains Uncertain Amid Stalled Talent Negotiations

Come on Barbie, let’s go party…again?! Three years after the Greta Gerwig-directed film sashayed into theaters, Warner Bros. Discovery is still attempting a sequel, but there’s a big deadline looming.

As The New York Times reports, the rights to “Barbie” will revert to Mattel in December unless Warner Bros. can secure a deal with the principal talent, including Gerwig and stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. If they do, in fact, get pen to paper, the deal would give Warner Bros. a percentage of gross profits (as was the case with the first film).

While negotiations between studio heads and talent have been ongoing for several months, there’s been little movement. David Zaslav, the head of Warner Bros. Discovery, has reportedly called certain offers too generous. Those offers include a $20 million payday for Gosling and a cut of profits for talent if the film hits certain financial targets at the box office.

A spokesperson for Warner Bros. told the Times that the talent declined its latest offer in May, and there hasn’t been a counter offer made since. Complicating the issue even further is the Warner Bros.-Paramount Skydance merger, which has been paused as part of an antitrust lawsuit. As the Times notes, Warner Bros. “needs to keep operating independently in the interim, and Barbie is a big part of its franchise strategy.”

While Mattel didn’t comment directly on the negotiations, chief executive Ynon Kreiz wants to get the deal back on track, telling the Times back in May, “We expect projects to move and be in active development. We don’t want to sit on the back burner.” Still, at least some of the delay has to do with the talent themselves: Because Gerwig was tapped to both write and direct, and didn’t want language in her contract regarding a second film, Warner Bros. “made a calculated risk and proceeded without a promised sequel,” according to the Times.

Barbie was a massive success for Warner Bros. The film not only brought in $1.5 billion in worldwide box office sales, but it also garnered eight Oscar nominations (and won for Best Original Song). Meanwhile, Barbie the Album took home the 2024 Grammy trophy for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media. Alongside Oppenheimer, the pop culture phenomenon of “Barbenheimer” also defined pop culture across summer 2023, and it continues to be a case study for organic marketing as well as important filmmaking in an era of endless sequels/prequels and unpredictable audiences.