Does Barbie have a post-credits scene?

April 2024 · 4 minute read

Even though the post-credits-scene phenomenon is really only standard at this point for superhero movies, children’s movies (especially animated ones, which often want to get in one last follow-up gag), and franchise features with a next project to tease, it makes sense that people sitting in the theater for Greta Gerwig’s Barbie would wonder whether the movie has some sort of tag. It’s a ridiculously dense comedy, full of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it gags about everything from toxic masculinity to the silliest fashion choices in Barbie toy history.

Why wouldn’t Gerwig (and co-writer Noah Baumbach) take the moment to throw in one more joke or note at the end? There are certainly enough characters and micro-thread stories in the film to justify it. And yet… let’s dig into the obvious questions people will have immediately after seeing the movie.

Does Barbie have a end-credits scene?

The original theatrical release doesn’t have one. No mid-credits scene either, absolutely nothing after the credits start — though it’s still worth hanging around for a while to see the credits’ lineup of actual past Barbie products, including many lampooned in the film itself. It’s a chance to see what these dolls actually looked like when they weren’t played by famous people.

But Warner Bros. is sending Barbie to IMAX screens for a weeklong run starting Sept. 22, and the studio has revealed that the IMAX edition will have newly added post-credits footage. No word yet on whether any other theatrical or home release of Barbie will have that extra footage.

Will the Barbie movie get a sequel?

There are currently no plans for Barbie 2, and Gerwig is already busy with another project — the next thing on her docket is a pair of movie adaptations of C.S. Lewis’ Narnia books, which she’ll be making at Netflix. But Gerwig has suggested she might be open to more Barbie movies down the line — “I want to go back to Barbieland,” she told People ahead of Barbie’s release. Early tracking on Barbie suggests it’ll be a box-office hit and a cultural phenomenon, so expect Warner Bros. to be courting Gerwig for a follow-up.

Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz has already told Time that he’s interested in more Barbie movies after this one — but given that there have already been more than 40 Barbie movies since 2001, that’s no surprise. That same Time piece says Barbie star Margot Robbie has already been “involved in conversations” about sequels or a franchise, but nothing’s set yet — likely because due to the tricky nature of Gerwig’s Barbie, the studio and Mattel wanted to hedge their bets and see how it performed.

Should there be a Barbie 2?

That’s a trickier question! For a movie about a world-famous IP, Gerwig’s Barbie is unusually creative and colorful, with a take on Barbie that’s both loving and critical. It’s a fun time, and the Polygon staff recommends seeing it. But it mines a lot of its biggest joys out of surprise. The visual gags hit hardest the first time through, like the way Barbie floats through the world because nobody playing with a Barbie toy has her walk places. Then there’s the shock value of finding out that not only is Barbieland a real place where real people can go, Mattel is used to the problem of Barbieland characters escaping, and has a protocol for it. A sequel would have to find a radically new direction.

But hey, it worked for A Very Brady Sequel, which has a lot of the same satirical-yet-loving tone, and is absolutely funnier and smarter than the original The Brady Bunch Movie.

Will there be a Barbie movie prequel?

Now that seems more in keeping with current studio thinking — especially since Barbie openly discusses a previous crisis where Skipper escaped Barbieland and entered Reality, and we never learn much about why that happened. Backing up and filling in that storyline would give everyone involved in Barbie a chance to tell another story with this same silly Barbie tone, without having to reckon with all the life-changing experiences the characters go through in this story.

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