Greta Gerwig compared to Oppenheimer after Barbie spawns new MCU

❘ Published: 2023-07-27T18:15:21

Fox Searchlight Pictures/Universal Pictures

As Barbie continues to succeed, Greta Gerwig is being looked at as the new Oppenheimer as Mattel looks to launch a new cinematic universe.

Greta Gerwig’s pink themed, women-driven movie Barbie has finally premiered and has completely taken the world by storm.

The movie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, has completely destroyed its projected box office earning to become the number one movie in the world.

But, unfortunately, it seems like all of that success has inspired Mattel, Barbie’s parent company, to spawn a whole cinematic universe worth of toy movies, which has made fans compare Gerwig’s success to that of Oppenheimer.

Gerwig branded new Oppenheimer as Mattel launches MCU

Mattel’s CEO Ynon Kreiz sat down with Variety to discuss the brand’s theatrical future now that Gerwig’s Barbie is out. He stated: “At the outset, we’re not saying, ‘Okay, let’s think already about movie two and three.’ Let’s get the first one right and make that a success. And if you do that, opportunities open up very quickly, once you establish the first movie as a successful representation of a franchise on the big screen.”

Kreiz added that “successful movies lend themselves to more movies” and that “our ambition is to create film franchises.”

With the idea of brands and movie studios building franchises out of certain IPs, the internet quickly flamed the idea as ridiculous as they’re missing the point of Barbie being a good movie because it was original and creative, not because it was built off the brand alone.

Fans also drew a comparison between Gerwig and Barbie’s counterpart Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer helped create the weapon that could lead to nuclear war and realized his fatal mistake after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Now there’s been a ton of memes and jokes made on Twitter about how Gerwig, much like Oppenheimer, helped open the door to a disastrous future when it comes to toy-themed movies. Below are some of the best reactions:

A tweet making fun of Mattel wanting to make a toy cinematic universe

As long as Mattel can make a ton of money using Gerwig’s success with Barbie, fans should get ready to watch Barbie: 2 Fast 2 Fabulous in about five years.

Barbie is now playing in theaters. Check out our other coverage about the film below: