With the long-awaited Barbie movie finally in cinemas, film fans were able to spend their weekend watching Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling killing it alongside their star-studded castmates.
But while the hit film sees stars like Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa and Scott Evans all playing different variations of Ken, it turns out Barbie Land was initially supposed to be even more star-studded.
In a new interview with Vanity Fair, Barbie’s casting director Allison Jones named some of the actors who were initially approached to play various Kens, but weren’t able to due to scheduling conflicts.
Among them were Schitt’s Creek star Dan Levy, Broadway star Ben Platt and Fire Island’s Bowen Yang, with Allison stating: “They were, I’m not kidding, really bummed they couldn’t do it.”
She went on to reveal that the casting team had another actor in mind for the role of Allan – the Kens’ oft-overlooked best pal – before Michael Cera got the part.
“Dear, dear Jonathan Groff was like, ‘I can’t believe I’m typing this, but I can’t do Allan’,” Allison added, referring to the Tony winning star of Hamilton and Disney’s Frozen franchise.
She also told the outlet that she was on the look-out for actors who could best convey that “our Barbies only knew pleasant things”.
Margot Robbie – who is also a producer on the film, as well as its lead star – previously shared another actor who she’d eyed to play one of the Barbies, but was also unavailable when filming was underway.
Director Greta Gerwig had also planned cameos from two A-listers who had appeared in her two previous films, Lady Bird and Little Women, though these sadly never came to fruition either.
Barbie is in cinemas now.