The Big Picture

• Kate McKinnon's Weird Barbie is a standout character in Greta Gerwig's Barbie, offering humor and depth.
• A Barbie sequel is not needed, but Weird Barbie has many storylines, including a potential past with Gloria, that offer lanes for exploration.
• Weird Barbie could be a rich source of inspiration for a future Barbie sequel due to her unique perspective and the way she was cast out from Barbieland due to her differences.

Greta Gerwig’s 2023 Mattel-inspired masterpiece, Barbie, is a colorful adventure made unforgettable through its eye-popping sets, show-stopping dance numbers, and more than anything, its stellar, star-studded cast. While Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, and America Ferrera provide nuanced, critically acclaimed performances that range from tear-jerking to sidesplitting, Barbieland is brimming with memorable characters, from Allan (Michael Cera), to President Barbie (Issa Rae), to Sugar Daddy Ken (Rob Brydon). However, one member of this fantastic plastic paradise makes an impression like no other, shining in all her bizarre glory with wild eyes, a face full of crayon tattoos, and a perpetually-pooping dog.

Kate McKinnon's Weird Barbie somersaults onto the scene with unlimited wisdom and valuable perspective, offering new insight into Barbieland and a hilarious reminder of what happens when you unleash angry, crafty children on unsuspecting dolls. She may provide some of Barbie's best jokes and funkiest haircuts, but Weird Barbie also serves as a powerful reminder to accept ourselves and others. So, as Mattel continues its onslaught of IP projects in the wake of Barbie's massive success, we can only hope that a Weird Barbie adventure is next on the docket.

Will There Be a 'Barbie' Sequel?

Before we get too into what could potentially be explored in a Weird Barbie movie, it must be stated that Barbie doesn't need a sequel or spin-off film at all. Greta Gerwig crafted a complete, powerful narrative that did what it could to unpack and explore the complexities of womanhood, and the Dream House should not reopen its doors without a good reason. There are currently no concrete plans to make a Barbie sequel, though Gerwig told Variety that if she feels that there is another rich story — or what Gerwig refers to as an "undertow" — to be explored in Barbieland, she's open to going back.

However, from Hot Wheels, to American Girl Dolls, to Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots (...seriously?), it appears that Mattel is willing to greenlight pretty much anything. And should Barbie once again find itself the darling of the summer box office, we have to admit that Weird Barbie might be the richest well of inspiration for a sequel.

Who Does Kate McKinnon Play in ‘Barbie’?

In Barbie, the dolls live in an idyllic, sun-soaked matriarchal society where days are spent wearing fabulous outfits, lounging at the beach, and performing elaborate bespoke dance numbers with a hundred of their closest friends. Everything is apparently perfect until one day, Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) is suddenly stricken with flat feet, cellulite, and looming thoughts of death. Her friends are horrified and insist that she seek out the help of Weird Barbie, who lives as an outcast in her own Weird House far away from the Barbie Dream Houses. Having been ostracized after being played with too aggressively, Weird Barbie lives alone with her dog, offered occasional company from other rejected Barbies and Kens, or Barbies who need help when they malfunction.

Weird Barbie Is One of the Best Characters in Greta Gerwig's 'Barbie'

One of the best things about this Barbie character is that, for pretty much anybody who grew up playing with dolls, Weird Barbie is a universal experience. Whether you were lining her eyes with a thick, black pen, or cutting unruly bangs with a pair of rusty, blunt kid scissors, there was always at least one doll in the toychest who didn't escape childhood unscathed. That's what makes Kate McKinnon's Barbie character so great — we know who she is right away. While McKinnon brings her unique humor to the role and makes the character a delightfully sardonic oracle who hangs in the rafters and makes killer dioramas, we recognize Weird Barbie for what she is immediately, and that's what makes her so funny.

Furthermore, Weird Barbie offers so much more than just comic relief. Although she seems pretty content hanging out in her Weird House with Growing Up Skipper and the rest of the misfit toys, she also has no choice but to make do as an outcast because the other Barbies rejected her. They even laugh whilst discussing how Weird Barbie helps others stay perfect while falling further into a state of disrepair herself. Kate McKinnon's character reminds us that even in the supposed utopia of Barbieland, all issues of feminism are not, in fact, solved. As Margot Robbie's Barbie says after her breakdown, either you're brainwashed, or you're ugly and weird. Given that Weird Barbie no longer fits into Barbieland's standards, she's tossed aside.

Of course, at the end of the movie, Issa Rae's President Barbie apologizes to Weird Barbie for how she's been treated in the past, and offers her a position in government (a major win for the Department of Sanitation), showing the value of fostering different perspectives in positions of power. This moment acknowledges that the "perfect" society in which the Barbies were previously existing was actually far from it. Nevertheless, we can't forget that even in a fantastical world run entirely by women, the constraints of societal expectations are inescapable, and Weird Barbie suffers for it.

Kate McKinnon’s Weird Barbie Probably Belonged to America Ferrera's Gloria

While it’s not explicitly stated in the movie, it’s implied that America Ferrera's Gloria is the one who made Weird Barbie, well, weird. When Lawyer Barbie (Sharon Rooney) is telling Stereotypical Barbie where Weird Barbie came from, she informs us that Weird Barbie used to be the most beautiful Barbie before somebody "played with her too hard," aka contorted her into a pretzel and aggressively decorated her with various craft supplies. A victim of magic marker vandalism and a very aggressive haircut, Weird Barbie has been drop-kicked, Sharpied, and burned with a barbecue lighter, leaving her seemingly forgotten in the real world.

In the montage where the young girl (Isabella Nightingale Mercado) is defacing her doll, the name Gloria is spelled out in Scrabble tiles on a play structure in her room. Furthermore, when Gloria explains to her daughter, Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt), how Weird Barbies came to be, Weird Barbie gives Gloria a thumbs up, telling her “It’s cool,” and seemingly forgiving her for the various abuses.

If a 'Barbie' Sequel Happens, It Should Be About Weird Barbie

Weird Barbie's relationship not only with the other Barbies but with Gloria leaves the door wide open for potential Barbie sequels, or even prequels. As narrator Helen Mirren quipped in Barbie, if the filmmakers want to make the point that meeting societal expectations of femininity is nearly impossible, Stereotypical Barbie, while fantastic, is not the most interesting lens through which to explore these injustices. Weird Barbie, on the other hand, is immune to the Kens' brainwashing because she was never desired by them in the first place. She possesses a perspective that nobody else in Barbieland can understand, as she's on the outside looking into the windows of the Dream House, but never invited in. Near the end of Barbie, we can even see that Weird Barbie has a new, more tamed haircut and has lost her face paint, perhaps signaling that the criticisms of her unique appearance affected her more than she ever let on.

Through her various, ever-impressive performances, we also know that Kate McKinnon can handle weighty topics as artfully as she can comedic ones, so, like Barbie, we know that a movie centered on Weird Barbie could have similar potential to balance humor and sincerity. The character has also proven to be of particular interest to Mattel, given that they've released a real-life doll version of Weird Barbie alongside their Barbies and Kens (which kind of goes against the whole idea of Weird Barbie, but whatever).

At the end of the day, a Barbie sequel of any kind would be a gamble, given the great success of its predecessor and the incredible standard that Greta Gerwig set with the first film. However, should the creative forces behind Barbie choose to delve once more into the Mattel Cinematic Universe, we know that Weird Barbie has stories to tell, and that Kate McKinnon and Greta Gerwig have all the talent needed to tell them. Should it be about a journey to the real world to take on Mattel, her complicated past with a young Gloria, or her burgeoning career in Sanitation, Weird Barbie has earned her time in the spotlight — splits and all.