She might be starring in it, too – maybe as the purple dinosaur himself?
It feels like Daniel Kaluuya has been talking about his Barney the dinosaur film for decades, since before he was even born. Here at Dazed, we have published several hundred articles devoted to the project since it was first announced in 2019. Incredibly, it turns out it doesn’t even have a script yet, but there is some good news for the Barney-heads among us: according to a report in Variety, Ayo Edebiri is joining as a screenwriter and possibly as an actor too.
Could she be starring as the titular T-Rex? We have no idea, but let's just assume yes – it would certainly be a fitting tribute to Barney’s queerness and genderfuck ethos to have him played by a woman.
The fact that Edebiri is involved is a promising sign – she is very funny! While she is best known for her acting roles (notably The Bear, Bottoms and Theatre Camp), Edebiri is an experienced screenwriter, with TV credits including Sunnyside, Big Mouth, What We Do in the Shadows and Dickinson. She has a distinct comic sensibility which should be a good match for whatever wacky vision Daniel Kaluuya is cooking up.
Kaaluya himself is a lead producer on the film, which is a joint venture between his company 59 per cent Productions, A24 and Mattel Films, which owns the IP, but won’t, according to Variety, actually be appearing as an actor.
Plot details remain thin on the ground, but comments by Mattel Films executive Kevin McKeon might give us a hint about what to expect. In a 2023 interview with The New Yorker, he suggested it would be “surrealistic” and “A24-type” film that “lean into the millennial angst of the property.” It sounded like dissatisfied 30-somethings might finally be getting the representation they so desperately need, but a different Mattel executive later clarified that “the film will not be odd”.
It’s unclear, then, whether we can expect any Charlie Kaufman-esque weirdness or mordant jokes about Barney listening to the National, living in a five-person houseshare and struggling with SSRI-related erectile dysfunction.