Issa Rae is joining the upcoming Barbie movie starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling at Warner Bros.
What we do know about the film is not much aside from the fact that Robbie and Gosling are playing Barbie and Ken, respectively. Also, according to People, Simu Liu, America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, and Will Ferrell are starring, with Ferrell set to play a toy company CEO. However, what we don’t know is who Rae is playing.
If we take a look at Barbie lore, Rae could easily play Christie, the official name for the Black Barbie.
Perhaps, if the movie is taking on some type of metaphysical storyline, Rae could also be Francie, a Black Barbie doll that came out 10 years before Christie.
Mattel also made a Julia doll, based on the television character played by Diahann Carroll in 1969. While it might be unlikely Rae would be playing a version of a doll based on an actual person, you never know. Since we don’t know anything, who Rae could be playing is anyone’s guess; she could be playing someone far removed from the Barbie set of characters.
People reports that Robbie, who is also a producer on the film, wants to subvert expectations with her role.
“The name itself, people immediately have an idea of, ‘Oh, Margot is playing Barbie, I know what that is,’ but our goal is to be like, ‘Whatever you’re thinking, we’re going to give you something totally different–the thing you didn’t know you wanted,” she said to The Hollywood Reporter in 2020.
The film is directed by Greta Gerwig and written by Gerwig and partner Noah Baumbach. The film is currently filming in the U.K. with the expectation of hitting theaters next year.
