When a movie makes more than $1.4 billion at the box office and earns eight Academy Award nominations, the studio is going to want to make a sequel. Such was the case with Warner Bros. and “Barbie.”

The blockbuster movie, released in July 2023, catapulted filmmaker Greta Gerwig, producer Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, aka “just Ken,” to new heights and was a huge win for Mattel, which owns the rights to the fashion doll, too — especially as the toy brand aims to stake its claim in Hollywood.

“It’s funny, that knee-jerk reaction in this day and age for everyone to immediately ask about a sequel,” Robbie told Variety for a 2024 cover story, heralding her production company LuckyChap as showpersons of the year. “I don’t think it was like that 20 years ago. This wasn’t designed to be a trilogy.”

That said, all parties were open to the idea of more pink-hued adventures, but nothing could happen unless Gerwig and her writing partner and husband, Noah Baumbach, came back with another great idea.

“Everything went into ‘Barbie’ — and that’s how Greta works,” Robbie said at the time. “She finishes every movie on empty, feeling like she could never make another movie because she put everything she had into that one. So I don’t know what it would take to fill that cup up again for her. Or for us. I think Warners would also agree. I don’t know what more could even look like. We want to make more films that have the effect that ‘Barbie’ has.”

So, for the last three years, rumors of a “Barbie 2” have been just that — until now.

On Friday, the New York Times reported that Warner Bros. has been in negotiations with Gerwig, Robbie and Gosling about making a sequel, and the studio is on a mission to get their deals in place before the rights revert to Mattel in December. However, if Warner Bros. doesn’t come to terms with the “Barbie” crew by that deadline, Mattel would have to redevelop the IP for a new movie — meaning a new filmmaker, new cast and new concept.

Warner Bros. co-chairs, Pam Abdy and Michael De Luca, confirmed the talks in a statement: “We have a rights deal with Mattel in place and have made a series of big offers to try and finalize deals to make the next ‘Barbie’ film. Unfortunately, we have been unable to reach an agreement thus far.”

The Times report notes that Gerwig and Baumbach have an idea for the new movie, but won’t share the concept with the studio until the deals are complete. Plus Gosling, who was nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar for his role, is angling for a pay raise, with $20 million as his asking price. There have also been talks of giving principal talent a cut of box office revenues if the sequel hits a certain benchmark. Warner Bros. boss David Zaslav, according to the NYT, is hesitant to sign off on such a deal and feels an offer like that would be too generous. While it might seem like CAA — which represents Gerwig, Baumbach, Robbie and Gosling — is playing hardball, it’s standard practice to renegotiate contracts when a sequel wasn’t included in the original paperwork, as was the case for “Barbie.”

In an interesting coincidence that the “Barbie 2” report comes as “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” breaks box office records, because there’s a universe where that movie never happened. Remember 2019, when Sony and Marvel’s agreement to co-finance and creatively produce Tom Holland’s “Spider-Man” movies; following public outcry (and tears of Holland’s own), the two parties came back to the negotiating table and hammered out a new deal. The resulting films, 2021’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” stand as the franchise’s highest-grossing film, with $1.9 billion worldwide, and “Brand New Day” looks to reach or surpass those numbers.

While December is the deadline for a new “Barbie” movie to get into development, production on the sequel would still be a ways away. Robbie will soon start production on her “Ocean’s 11” prequel for Warner Bros., while Gosling just announced he’ll star in Marvel’s “Ghost Rider” movie (dated for 2028) and has to promote “Star Wars: Starfighter” (in theaters May 28, 2027). Gerwig will also be heading out on a promo tour for her latest film, Netflix’s “Narnia,” early next year.