First Barbie teaser spoofs 2001: A Space Odyssey and sees Margot Robbie as the original 1959 doll

The first teaser trailer for Barbie is here. The clip, which hilariously spoofs Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, was shown for the first time ahead of showings of Avatar: The Way of Water and is now available to view online.

In a desert setting, the iconic main theme music for Kubrick's 1968 space epic plays. However, instead of apes crowded around an alien monolith, a little girl is awestruck by Margot Robbie's Barbie. Struck by the inferiority of her other dolls, the girl starts to hit them against the ground (echoing 2001's apes hitting each other with bones), before she throws one up towards the sky. Instead of transitioning into a shot of a satellite, like in Kubrick's movie, the screen instead fills with the Barbie logo.

Some eagle-eyed viewers have noticed that Robbie's get-up – a black and white striped swimsuit, white-framed sunglasses, heels, and curly blonde hair – is the same outfit as the original Barbie doll, which was released in 1959.

Directed by Greta Gerwig, Barbie was co-written by Gerwig and her frequent collaborator and real-life partner Noah Baumbach. Alongside Robbie's Barbie, Ryan Gosling will star as Ken, while Will Ferrell is the CEO of a toy company (that may or may not be Mattel…). The movie also features a stacked ensemble cast, including America Ferrera, Simu Liu, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Emma Mackey, Michael Cera, Ncuti Gatwa, Hari Nef, Connor Swindells, and Ritu Arya.

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.