Cillian Murphy says he would be keen to play Ken if there’s a Barbie sequel

The Barbenheimer craze has well and truly swept the globe as cinema goers lap up the opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to entertainment.

Greta Gerwig's Barbie and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer have debuted to the fourth largest opening weekend in cinematic history after premiering last week.

Some people are rocking up to the theatre dressed all in pink or black to pay homage to the tone of the two films.

While the two films have earned the moniker Barbenheimer, we could actually get one hell of a crossover down the track if the planets align.

Warner Bros.

Cillian Murphy, who portrays J. Robert Oppenheimer in Nolan's incredible film, is on the press tour and was cheekily asked by a reporter if he would play Ken in a Barbie sequel.

Without flinching, the Irish actor gave us the best possible answer.

“Sure! Let’s read a script," he told Cinéfilos. "Let's have a conversation."

He then said he was super excited to see Barbie, which stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken.

"I can't wait to see the movie, I think it's great for cinema, you know, you've got all these great movies happening this summer," he added.

Murphy certainly isn't wrong there.

It is a fantastic time for the movie industry.

Hot off the back of two gigantic franchises dropping sequels (Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1 and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny), Barbie and Oppenheimer have reignited that excitement of going to the movies.

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Greta Gerwig's film has well and truly written itself into the history books.

Box Office Mojo says the Greta Gerwig flick centring around the iconic Mattel toy shattered its revival Oppenheimer and has earned $356 million around the world on its opening weekend.

In the US, Barbie took in more than $155 million, which is the biggest domestic opening of 2023.

What's even more mind-blowing is that the film's budget was up to $145 million, so it's already made good on its investment.

“This is an unequivocally great weekend for moviegoing,” said David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research, as per Variety.

“Barbie and Oppenheimer are complementing each other at the box office, not taking audience from each other.”

Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore, told CNN that this opening weekend was ‘unprecedented’ with films benefitting from their rivalry.

“I can’t really think of any parallels ever. Where both movies became bigger because of each other," he explained.

Topics: Cillian Murphy, Barbie, TV and Film

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Senior Journalist at LADbible. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign. He is in charge of the LADbible Australia editorial content and social presence.

@stewartperrie