Simu Liu is joining Greta Gerwig's ever-bizarre-sounding Barbie movie

Few upcoming projects on the Hollywood docket have produced more “Wait, what?”s from us than Greta Gerwig’s long-discussed live-action Barbie movie, a film that seems bound and determined to throw an increasing number of the industry’s biggest and most interesting talents at, well, a Barbie movie, and see if anyone bites.

We can now apparently add Shang-Chi star Simu Liu to that list, as THR reports that Liu is in negotiations to join a cast that also includes Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, and America Ferrera. Given that we know basically nothing about what Gerwig and co-writer Noah Baumbach have cooked up for America’s favorite plastic lady, we have no idea as of yet who Liu will be playing. (If we had to guess: One of the members of Ken’s anatomically incorrect entourage.)

Which raises the same question that always comes up when news about this film percolates into our ears: Wait, what?

So far, all we really know about this movie is that Robbie is playing Barbie (and producing) and that Gosling is playing Ken. We can infer a few things from the simple fact that Gerwig and Baumbach are interested in the property—it feels unlikely, for instance, that the live-action movie will serve as a direct sequel to existing Barbie film properties Barbie: Spy Squad (2016) or 2018's Barbie: Dolphin Magic. But beyond that, the tone on this thing is probably going to be wild; the best you can really say at this point is that whatever pitch Gerwig and Baumbach are sitting on is strong enough to continue to draw in big-name talent.

Liu is, obviously, currently rising on the strength of a charismatic lead performance in Shang-Chi, which did pandemic-good numbers for Disney earlier this year. THR notes that the former Kim’s Convenience star has at least two other movies he’s already filmed and which are now waiting for release, including Arthur The King with Mark Wahlberg, and One True Love with Hamilton’s Phillipa Soo.