Here's the Gay Origin Story of Michael Cera's 'Barbie' Character

In a world of Barbies and Kens, some people are Allans.

When the character posters were released for Greta Gerwig’s upcoming Barbie movie, we were all delighted to see which of our favorite actors were playing Barbies and Kens in the movie, and we also found out that some of the cast are playing other characters, including Michael Cera in the role of Allan.

But exactly who is Allan?

Well, according to his original packaging, he’s Ken’s “buddy.” You know, the kind of buddy you hang out with shirtless. The kind of buddy you share all your clothes with. That kind of “buddy.”

Back in 2020, a tweet from @byelacy went viral when they pointed out that Allan was labeled as Ken’s “buddy” with a trademark sign after it, as though “buddy” had some different meaning. Then, things got more interesting when she zoomed in and noticed that underneath the illustration of a shirtless Ken and Allan wearing an open rainbow-striped button up, Alan’s box says that “all of Ken’s clothes fit him!”

Classic heterosexual buddy stuff!

While the character posters for Ryan Gosling, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, and Scott Evans kept saying things like “He’s just Ken,” “He’s Ken too,” “He’s another Ken,” “Ken again,” and “You guessed it, he’s a Ken,” Cera’s poster reads “There’s only one Allan.”

The trailer is deliciously campy and has immense gay energy, but we don’t know to what extent we’ll get to see the “buddy” relationship between Alan and Ken in the movie. We sure hope it shows them sharing clothes, though!

Barbie | Teaser Trailer 2youtu.be

Barbie stars Margot Robbie, Issa Rae, Alexandra Shipp, Emma Mackey, Ana Cruz Kayne, Ritu Arya, Nicola Coughlan, Dua Lipa, Kate McKinnon, Hari Nef, and Sharon Rooney as Barbie. It comes out in theaters July 21, 2023.