If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

The Bear's Ayo Edebiri is partnering with Get Out's Daniel Kaluuya to make... an adult-oriented Barney & Friends movie?!?

A24 is partnering with Mattel to make a 30-something existential angst movie written and starring the lead from The Bear

News by Graeme McMillan, Editor

Published on Tue Feb 25 2025

Popverse's top stories of the day

Netflix still hasn't confirmed that One Piece season 3 is happening, but Zoro's actor seems to have let slip that it is - and it is filming this year
WATCH: Watch the Crunchyroll Industry Panel from NYCC 2024!
MEMBERS ONLY: Enter the DC Universe with Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow writer Tom King in Popversations

If the idea of Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig getting together to make a Barbie movie sounded strange at first, get ready for a potentially even stranger combination: The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri is partnering with Get Out star Daniel Kaluuya for a big-screen Barney & Friends reboot at A24.

Yes, you read that right.

Edebiri is in talks to write and star in the project, which will be produced by Kaluuya’s 59% Productions for A24. The movie has been in the works since 2019, with Mattel executive Kevin McKeon saying in a 2023 interview that he imagined the movie “leaning into the millennial angst of the property rather than fine-tuning this for kids,” adding, “it’ll focus on some of the trials and tribulations of being thirtysomething, growing up with Barney — just the level of disenchantment within the generation.”

For those who didn’t grow up with Barney, the purple dinosaur who loves friends and vegetables first appeared in a series of video releases in 1988 under the title Barney & The Backyard Gang, before transferring to public television in 1992 as Barney & Friends, where it was a staple of the preschool audience through 2010. The format of the show was simple: Barney and his dinosaur friends, along with a bunch of children, would spend the majority of each episode learning about a new topic, aided and assisted by guests in both human and puppet form. The show was critically derided for its simplicity, but nonetheless a phenomenon.

This new writing/acting gig for Edebiri continues the varied and fascinating rise of The Bear star; she’s about to appear in A24’s horror movie Opus, with upcoming appearances in new movies from James L. Brooks and Challengers and Queer director Luca Guadagnino. Opus will arrive in theaters March 14.

Want to know what's coming up next in pop culture? Check out Popverse's guides to:

Follow Popverse for upcoming event coverage and news

Graeme McMillan: Popverse Editor Graeme McMillan (he/him) has been writing about comics, culture, and comics culture on the internet for close to two decades at this point, which is terrifying to admit. He completely understands if you have problems understanding his accent.