Barbie: Reddit's Conspiracy Theory About Mattel Employees Might Blow Your Mind

While a movie about a doll might seem like the most straightforward concept around, the "Barbie" movie is filled with the kind of layers that make it well worth a second watch. While there's plenty of silliness and toy references for kids of all ages to enjoy, Greta Gerwig's film is also surprisingly deep, tackling social concepts like the patriarchy and a woman's place in modern society through its often aloof protagonist as she enters the real world for the first time. 

In fact, the notion that it successfully checks so many boxes could also be contributing to the movie making over $1 billion at the box office, just as star Margot Robbie predicted. However, fans over on Reddit are going even deeper with regard to "Barbie," looking into even the tiniest details of the film to parse out all of its hidden messages. For instance, u/Physmo55 posted on the r/FanTheories subreddit about what they had noticed with regard to some of Mattel's employees in the film.

"All the lower-level Mattel employees are dolls, they just don't know it," the user suggested, laying out three points of evidence for the theory. "They all dress the same. Some of the cubes have no entrances. It would be way cheaper for a company that knows dolls can leave their doll lands," they explained.

Though the "Barbie" movie has plenty to say about consumer culture and what drives the top brass at a major corporation like Mattel, could Will Ferrell's goofy CEO character and his cronies really be so dastardly as to enslave dolls as corporate drones? Well, seeing as how close he comes to tricking Barbie (Margot Robbie) into getting back into a box (figuratively and literally), it does seem like a possibility.

u/cwx149 doubled down on the fan theory, giving it even more weight with their observations. "I mean to your point about leaving doll lands. Who's to say the lower floor of [Mattel] isn't a doll land," they wondered. "These characters clearly don't have the influence Barbie has in the real world. Who's to say the elevator in Mattels building (a building we know a ghost keeps an office in) can't go right to 'call center-doll land.'"

When you consider how out of the ordinary it is for Aaron (Connor Swindells) and his colleagues to go up the corporate ladder, it does seem possible that this could indeed be the case in "Barbie." "I like the idea that it is the 'corporate drone' doll land [in] the basement," original poster u/Physmo55 agreed. While there's nothing in the books yet for a "Barbie" sequel, ideas like this one are definitely something that could be explored when the next movie inevitably arrives.