America has Barbie fever. From sea to shining sea and the theaters within, happy Mattel customers are sharing their Barbenheimer experience and reveling in the joy of Barbie. It is a winning film with a keen visual style (the magic of a well lit set), fresh performances, and jokes aplenty. But inevitably, as the pink hangover washes over the movie-going public, we’ll have to reckon with the movie’s inevitable sequel. Barbie 2 must be on the horizon, right? Right?
Per The New York Times, it doesn’t sound like much has moved on that front. At least as far as the film’s director, Greta Gerwig, is concerned. “I feel like that at the end of every movie, like I’ll never have another idea, and everything I’ve ever wanted to do, I did,” Gerwig told the Times. “I wouldn’t want to squash anybody else’s dream, but for me, at this moment, I’m at totally zero.”
This is a huge relief. As much as we’d all like to see a little more of Allan, the mad dash to fart out a sequel to every successful film has created a cinematic ecosystem where every ticket comes with an assigned viewing list. People talk a lot about superhero fatigue, but a more accurate reading of the situation is sequel fatigue. This year, franchise movies are falling short, with sure-bets like Ant-Man, Fast & Furious, and Mission: Impossible underperforming. The steady churn of follow-ups has caused cracks in the foundations of the MCU, as each new installment creates less excitement than the last. They make money, sure, but they also generate a lot of noise. At this point, getting into Marvel movies is a 70-hour undertaking, not even including the shows. This year alone, we will see three films and supposedly five Disney+ shows. Moreover, and perhaps most embarrassingly, The Sound Of Freedom is making more waves this summer than Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny.
Barbie offered a rarity in our cinematic landscape: An entry point. One can buy a ticket to the movie, get a quick primer on this doll everyone is talking about, and understand the plot from there. Adding an interlocking Mattle-iverse upon that would be like getting gum stuck in Midge’s hair. Just look at Barbie’s forebearer, The Lego Movie, another seemingly impossible project based on a toy, starring Will Ferrell as the adult heavy. The surprise success of the first film meant that by 2019, we had three sequels, but only one that connected with audiences, The Lego Batman Movie.
The speed with which these forces ramp up is fast, and though Mattel execs try to play the good guy in interviews, talking about the brand’s integrity, we already know they want to make a Magic 8 Ball movie—and have been trying to make it since 2010. If we want Barbie to remain this special thing, we all should wait for inspiration to strike Gerwig a second time before returning to Barbie Land. Until then, one is Kenough.