Michael Cera's Barbie Character Is A Truly Unexpected Easter Egg
A new series of posters for the upcoming "Barbie" movie has revealed just how stacked the film's cast actually is. Director Greta Gerwig's cinematic take on the immortal fashion doll stars Margot Robbie as the titular character and Ryan Gosling as Ken, but the film will also feature an ensemble of actors playing different variations of both toys within Mattel's line. The most obscure of these references is Michael Cera's character Allan, a discontinued doll that Mattel introduced in the 1960s as Ken's friend.
Cera's appearance in the "Barbie" teaser trailer amounts to a quiet, vacant stare while he watches Gosling's Ken and Simu Liu's Ken fight about "beaching off," while his poster appears alongside the Ken variations with the tagline, "There's only one Allan." It's pretty clear that the gag is that Allan is Ken's dorkier, less sexy counterpart, which is an in-joke that requires a decades-long knowledge of Barbie history in order to truly appreciate.
The tragedy of Allan
Allan entered the Barbie universe several times, but he was always doomed to live in Ken's shadow and was once even the target of a mini moral controversy. Allan debuted in 1964 in the same rainbow-striped sweater he wears in the poster and trailer for the movie, but Mattel's main marketing pull for him was that "all of Ken's clothes fit him." The poor guy only got two of his own outfits, the aforementioned beachwear fit and a Best Man suit. Just as Barbie and Ken were named after Mattel founder Ruth Handler's daughter Barbara and son Kenneth, Allan's namesake comes from Barbara Handler's own husband Allan Segel. Allan's discontinuation in 1966 may, in fact, have been due to the couple's divorce, but he made an even more awkward return in the 1990s and early 2000s.
You see, Mattel also released a simpler model of Barbie named Midge around the same time that Allan hit shelves (a character who will also be featured in the film adaptation played by Emerald Fennell). Allan and Midge ended up getting married in 1991 and the two settled down and made plans to start a family as Midge got pregnant in 2002. However, the moms of the U.S. didn't take too kindly to the idea and complained that Midge was promoting teenage pregnancy. Judging by the posters, it looks as if the film's version of Midge is also pregnant — yet another elaborate joke for the Barbie nerds. As for poor Allan, he was a casualty of the controversy, never to be seen again until Michael Cera brought him back into style.
"Barbie" opens in theaters on July 21, 2023.