Barbie‘s second teaser trailer dropped on Tuesday and has been dominating the internet ever since. Viewers were captivated by the bright colors, funky outfits, and satisfying depiction of Barbieland. The trailer shows the film’s dedication to realistically bringing Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) to life, nailing every detail down to the slope of Barbie’s foot. Adults are already appreciating the depiction of Barbieland as a matriarchy run by Barbie and her legion of fellow Barbies, while the Kens are just … Ken.
While the trailer was filled with possibilities, campy humor, and appealing costumes and sets, many viewers were struggling to find indications of the plot. We see Barbie’s feet, Ken (Gosling) and Ken (Simu Liu) threatening to “beach you off,” and Ken sneaking into Barbie’s car with roller blades. Most viewers just accepted that Barbie was keeping its plot under wraps and enjoyed the trailer for how fun it was. However, the teaser trailer may actually have held more hints about its plot than we initially thought.
Five plot clues in the Barbie trailer
Based on a few hints from the trailer, it seems that Barbie is going to enter the “real” world, as opposed to the Barbieland we see for most of the trailer. How do we know this? Well, at about 1:05, the trailer gives us a plain shot of an enormous pink sign that reads, “Real World This Way.” It also has an arrow pointing to the “real world,” and it’s clear that Barbie’s pink convertible is going in that direction. Another hint we get is an aerial view of Barbieland shown in the teaser’s opening. The scene focuses on the heart-shaped Barbieland enclosed in a pink border and sitting next to the ocean. However, if you look closely, you’ll see that there’s terrain lying directly outside the pink-colored paradise. Hence, Barbieland might be closed off from the rest of the world, but the real world exists beyond it.
Another big hint that the real world exists is Kate McKinnon’s gymnast Barbie. Both the trailer and character posters show that McKinnon’s Barbie has what appear to be streaks of marker on her face. One of her eyes has a black circle around it, while squiggles of blue and red can be seen on her forehead. She also boasts a choppy haircut and is in perpetual splits. It’s almost as if a real-life child got ahold of her and scribbled on her face and cut her hair with safety scissors.
Plus, at 0:52 in the trailer, McKinnon’s Barbie is seen doing a split and looking at flat feet. The trailer established early on that Barbies always walk on their toes because the dolls’ feet are fixed in this posture to fit into heels. They’re also wearing a dress and stockings, so it’s strange that the person McKinnon is in front of would have flat feet unless they were a non-Barbie human.
Another hint about the film’s plot comes from leaked set photos that went viral last summer. The pictures saw Robbie and Gosling filming rolling skating scenes with regular people around and, interestingly enough, one of those people was Will Ferrel, who’s set to play a human toy company CEO. And our final plot hint comes from TikToker user @theafternoonspecial, who pointed out an interesting Easter egg. At 0:30 in the trailer, Barbie passes by a theater that is playing The Wizard of Oz. It could just be a fun Easter egg, but one can’t help but recall that The Wizard of Oz is a film about a girl traveling to another world. Hence, it could also hint at Barbie‘s plot.
Ultimately, all of these hints can lead one to believe that part of Barbie‘s plot will see her going into the real world at some point. Why she’s being forced out of Barbieland and into this life-changing journey is a plot point we’ll have to wait to see for ourselves.
Barbie will hit theaters July 21, 2023.
(featured image: Warner Bros.)
