While we’re very much looking forward to Disney’s remake of The Little Mermaid this spring, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie just gave us another onscreen siren to look forward to: Dua Lipa. The British pop star has joined the cast to as mermaid Barbie, Warner Bros. announced today in a series of character posters. In our first glimpse of Lipa in her role, she wears a bright blue wig and matching eyeshadow, hoop earrings, a shimmery bra top, and scallop-printed bottoms—a perfectly campy look fit for an underwater superstar.
Lipa joins Margot Robbie, Issa Rae, Ryan Gosling, Simu Liu, Will Ferrell, America Ferrera, and many more in the star-studded cast. Barbie is set to open in theaters on July 21.
This isn’t Lipa’s only upcoming film role. She’s also set to star in Apple TV+’s spy thriller Argylle opposite Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, Ariana DeBose, John Cena, and Samuel L. Jackson. She’ll be recording original music for that film too. (It’s still unconfirmed whether she’ll be composing songs for Barbie.) Mermaid or not, Lipa’s film career is well under way.
We should also be expecting more music from the singer, whose last album, Future Nostalgia, dropped in 2020. Her still-in-progress third album has “taken a complete turn as I’ve carried on working, and I really feel now that it’s starting to sound cohesive,” she told Variety in November 2022. She also teased, “The album is different—it’s still pop but it’s different sonically, and there’s more of a lyrical theme. If I told you the title, everything would make sense—but I think we’ll just have to wait.”
Erica Gonzales is the Senior Culture Editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage on TV, movies, music, books, and more. She was previously an editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com. There is a 75 percent chance she’s listening to Lorde right now.
