No, Oppenheimer Hasn’t Been Delayed to Avoid a Showdown With Barbie

This morning, a pretty wild rumor started floating around Twitter – that Christopher Nolan’s next big tentpole, Oppenheimer, finally blinked, moving from the July 21, 2023, release date that it shared with Greta Gerwig’s already buzzy Barbie movie.

Here’s the thing: that rumor was just that, despite the tweets that circulated the morning that generated thousands of retweets and stoked the fires of the showdown between these two very different movies. IGN has confirmed with Universal that Oppenheimer’s July release date is still on, and Variety, which featured the quotes that originated the rumor, has since updated its original story to reflect as much.

So how did that rumor even start? With quotes from the president of the Cannes Film Festival, Thierry Fremaux.

In an otherwise pretty innocuous conversation with Variety about the slate of this year’s festival, Fremaux was asked if there was any chance Oppenheimer, Nolan’s star-studded World War II film, would be added to the lineup, to which he responded:

“Unfortunately no, I would have loved [that] but it’s being released at the end of the year as part of their awards strategy. My two regrets this year are Oppenheimer and Barbie, but it won’t be ready either by May.”

It’s unclear what Fremaux is referring to here, but it’s likely he just misspoke. In fact, Variety’s later update said he “later clarified that Oppenheimer is still set for a July release.”

However, since Twitter has already had some fun with the Oppenheimer/Barbie double-whammy – especially after Barbie generated even more buzz with a new trailer and posters earlier this month – this not-actually-news was just gasoline on the fire.

But it turns out to be much ado about nothing, so don’t worry: your Oppenheimer/Barbie double-feature is still on.

Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.