Like the unmistakable toy it’s based on, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie film can lay claim to a cultural impact like no other. There’s no denying that the Barbenheimer battle lent a hefty hand in such an endeavor, but through the combined efforts of Gerwig’s unique wit, Margot Robbie’s status as a paragon of a performer, and the rest of the team pulling their weight masterfully, Barbie will no doubt go down in history as a defining cinematic feminist anthem.
And when you’re in the process of etching yourself into history, audiences tend to get a bit too invested in your mythological status, and the intriguing-to-bonkers fan theories don’t take long to roll in. We’re already pretty sure that Barbie was a prequel to Blade Runner 2049, but one user on r/FanTheories is more interested in the truth behind a character that we may not have gotten the full picture for.
Indeed, the jury is out, and everyone seems convinced that Will Ferrell‘s character, the CEO of Mattel, is secretly a variant of Allan – a doll played by Michael Cera in the film – who made the jump to the real world.
The original poster lays out the argument better than we ever could, but between the CEO’s intimate knowledge of, and how to get to Barbie Land, his surprisingly genuine intentions that aren’t indicative of patriarchal assimilation, and Cera’s Allan’s very subtle callback to previous behavior exhibited by the CEO, the patterns seem to speak for themselves.
Like the film itself, the theory was met with critical acclaim from fellow redditors:
Gerwig’s billion-dollar fantasy comedy hasn’t even left theaters yet, but apparently that hasn’t stopped the theorists from cooking up some absolutely fire headcanon to enrich a viewing experience that some would argue is already at full capacity. Indeed, we can’t wait to see how many more fan theories are born once Barbie heads to streaming and subsequently gifts viewers with power of pausing and rewatching on a whim.
Barbie is now playing in theaters.