Matt Damon weighs in on Twitter's Barbie vs Oppenheimer rivalry

Matt Damon as Leslie Groves in Oppenheimer — (Image credit: Universal)

Matt Damon just isn't here for Twitter's whole Barbie vs Oppenheimer thing.

Ever since it was announced that Greta Gerwig's fantasy-comedy and Christopher Nolan's historical drama would be releasing on July 21, social media users have joked about how cinemagoers are going to have to pick one or the other on opening night. Not only that, but Nolan left Warner Bros., the studio behind Barbie, following a two-decade partnership to make Oppenheimer with Universal. Basically, there's some serious built-in drama there, ripe for online jokes and memes...

When asked about the "controversy" by Vanity Fair recently, Damon, who plays Manhattan Project director Leslie Groves in Oppenheimer, said: "This is the first I'm hearing about it, actually. I haven't paid any attention to that. People are allowed to go see two movies in a weekend. Oppenheimer is one of them!"

The publication then brought up the fact that Damon has four daughters, and that they might be more interested in seeing Margot Robbie bring the famous Mattel doll to life, to which he replied: "I'll have to ask them that. If that's the case, they'll see two movies that weekend!"

You'd be a fool to take anything you see on Twitter too seriously, so Damon certainly has a point. We'll definitely be seated for both Barbie and Oppenheimer as they both roll out in cinemas, and expect to have a completely different, yet similarly enjoyable time at each.

Starring Cillian Murphy as titular nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, Nolan's newest feature explores how the scientist created the atomic bomb during World War II. Florence Pugh, Alden Ehrenreich, Jack Quaid, Matthew Modine, Jason Clarke, Rami Malek, Benny Safdie, Dane DeHaan, Louise Lombard, David Dastmalchian, Josh Hartnett, and Sir Kenneth Branagh (who worked with Nolan on both Dunkirk and Tenet) are also lined up to star.

On the flip side, Gerwig's next flick will see Robbie's Barbie heel-booted out of Barbieland for not fitting the mold of what a typical Barbie should be. In the real world, the plastic gal sets out to discover what true happiness is – and finds her independence along the way. (The official trailer may have dropped back in April, but we're still giggling about Ryan Gosling's Ken and the way he says "girlfriend-boyfriend").

I am an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering all things TV and film across our Total Film and SFX sections. Elsewhere, my words have been published by the likes of Digital Spy, SciFiNow, PinkNews, FANDOM, Radio Times, and Total Film magazine.