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‘Let’s have a conversation’: ‘Oppenheimer’ star open to jumping ship for a potential role in ‘Barbie 2’

Girls will love playing with existentially haunted nuclear scientist Ken!

Barbenheimer
Images via Warner Bros. and Universal

Barbie is shaping up to be one of the biggest hits of the year, rocketing out of the gates to become the biggest opening by a female director in movie history at $356 million, and in with a chance of joining the billion-dollar box office club.

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This means the much-heralded “Barbenheimer” battle with Oppenheimer has proven to be somewhat one-sided, though perhaps an all-ages comedy has a lot more appeal than a sobering three-hour meditation on nuclear weapons. That said, Oppenheimer is no slouch and has so far racked up $180 million at the international box office.

Throughout this, there’s been a friendly sense of competition between these very different movies, and now Cillian Murphy has confessed he’d love to pop up as a Ken in the inevitable Barbie sequel:

Speaking to Cinefilo, he said:

“Would I play a Ken in Barbie 2? Sure, let’s read the script. Let’s have a conversation.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cuzy6jUgEdI/

Given Barbie’s playful and self-referential comedy, we wouldn’t be surprised to see Murphy pop up as a nuclear researcher or quantum physics professor Ken. Naturally, this Ken would have to be quieter and more intense, perhaps occasionally moodily staring into the camera while wearing a trilby.

Barbie and Oppenheimer‘s mutual success will see studios and theater chains breathing a big sigh of relief. This summer has seen two unexpected flops in The Flash and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, with even Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One somewhat underperforming.

Let’s hope that Barbie 2 gets fast-tracked and hits screens as soon as humanly possible.