The Margot Robbie starrer Barbie became a blockbuster hit, earning over a billion dollars at the box office. The Greta Gerwig directorial was the first live-action adaptation of the popular children’s toy and was in the making for decades. The film was lauded for its tongue-in-cheek humor and commentary on the real world.
One of the funniest digs that the Margot Robbie starrer takes is the joke on the ‘Snyder Cut’ campaign that was launched by DC fans, who wanted the release of the film Zack Snyder’s Justice League. The joke was intended to be a dig at cinephiles and was more topical, but Gerwig had reportedly planned another nuanced joke that would have upset even more fans. Spoilers ahead for the film.
What Was The Snyder Cut Joke Made In Margot Robbie’s Barbie?
The Greta Gerwig directorial Barbie saw Margot Robbie playing Stereotypical Barbie, who undergoes an existential crisis while being in Barbieland. Barbieland is governed by Barbies while the Kens play second fiddle to them. Robbie’s Barbie visits the outside world with Ryan Gosling’s Ken and gets to know the struggles of women in the real world.
However, Ken discovers the status of men in the real world and goes back to Barbieland with this ideology. He stages a rebellion along with the other Kens and for a few moments succeeds in the indoctrination of the Barbies into submissive roles. However, Margot Robbie’s Barbie comes back and helps the rest of the Barbies realize the issues with patriarchy and deprogram them.
It is at this point that Writer Barbie makes the joke about Zack Snyder’s Justice League. The character, played by Alexandra Shipp, wakes up from her programmed slumber and says,
“It’s like being in a dream where I’ve somehow been really invested in the Zack Snyder cut of ‘Justice League.'”
The joke is aimed at the ‘ReleaseTheSnyderCut’ campaign executed by the DC fans. The campaign is criticized for the relentless bullying that WB studio went through due to fans bombarding every post or event with demand for the Snydercut of the Justice League.
Greta Gerwig Had A Different Joke Planned For The Scene
The point of the Snyder cut joke in Margot Robbie’s Barbie was to point out the superficial and sacred position that a director’s cut of a film holds among ‘male film bros’. Many films such as Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Apocalypse Now, and even Daredevil have been regarded as a massive improvement over its predecessor.
The Snydercut campaign was one of the most ruthless campaigns run by the fans, and after the release, the fans tried to do it again by demanding WB to release David Ayer’s original version of Suicide Squad. However, Barbie director Greta Gerwig mentioned that her intention was not to anger fans of Zack Snyder but to comment on this phenomenon.
According to Gerwig, she originally planned to comment on the director’s cut of Blade Runner. The sci-fi film starring Harrison Ford reportedly had seven different cuts due to director Ridley Scott’s clash with the studio. The director’s cut of the film did away with the voice-over narration that was there in the released cut.
Gerwig revealed in an interview with Variety that the original joke had Writer Barbie mention the film in her speech,
“One of the Barbies says to Ken, ‘Oh my god, I never would have realized that Deckard was a replicant,’…Then when she gets unbrainwashed, there’s a version where she said, ‘I liked the voiceover. I needed it to help me understand what was happening. Nobody’s following this.'”
While the Blade Runner joke would have hit the point home, the Snyder cut joke seemed to be more topical.
