People Sure Are Melting Down Over That First Look At Ryan Gosling As Ken In ‘Barbie,’ Aren’t They?

A lot of movies have been made from dubious sources — perhaps you remember there was a Monster Trucks movie — but the big screen Barbie motion picture appears to be legit. It’s directed by Greta Gerwig. She wrote it with her partner, Noah Baumbach. It’s got an all-star cast, and Margot Robbie, as the 63-year-old doll, looks perfect. Speaking of, on Wednesday Warner Bros. dropped the first look at her paramour, Ryan Gosling’s Ken, and not only does he look perfect, too, but it all but broke the internet.

Only a smattering of details have been made public about the movie, but it sounds wild. For one thing, there’s reportedly multiple Barbies and Kens, played by a diverse cast including Issa Rae, Simu Liu, future Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa, and fashion’s first trans model Rae Hari Nef. That’s on top of it featuring Kate McKinnon, Michael Cera, and America Ferrara, all suggesting this is far from a mere cash-in.

But when Warner’s dropped that photo of Gosling — bleach blonde, bronze abs under an open denim sleeveless, his character name written on his visible underwear — people pretty much lost it.

Some honored the perennially hotcha Gosling, 41.

Others honored his past work.

Some welcomed the Nice Guys co-star’s return to comedy, at which he excels.

Some saw similarities with another actor who went bleach blonde: Scooby Doo’s Freddie Prinze Jr.

Not everyone dug it. But there were lots of jokes.

https://twitter.com/mootsheep/status/1537129880785022976

Barbie — which again is Gerwig’s follow-up to her hit adaptation of Little Women — isn’t due in theaters for another year-plus, on July 21, 2023.