Ayo Edebiri is writing the upcoming live-action Barney movie. She could also potentially star in the film. Mattel Films, Daniel Kaluuya’s 59% Productions, and A24 have partnered together to make a live-action Barney movie.
The children’s character originally debuted in 1988 and quickly became a global sensation, with the Barney & Friends television series having aired on PBS for 14 seasons before concluding in 2010.
Edebiri has now been tapped to write the script for the movie, which was first announced in 2019. Plot details for the film remain under wraps at this time; however, Mattel executive Kevin McKeon compared it to a Charlie Kaufman or Spike Jonze movie during a 2023 interview with The New Yorker. “We’re leaning into the millennial angst of the property rather than fine-tuning this for kids,” he said. “It’s really a play for adults.
Not that it’s R-rated, but 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.” Edebiri is best known for playing Sydney Adamu in FX’s The Bear.
She also voiced April O’Neil in 2023’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and the television series that followed, Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as well as Anxiety in Pixar’s Inside Out 2.