Are we as a culture ready for a Barney movie that has more in common with Midsommar than Magic School Bus?

Well, too bad. We’re getting it anyway. Oscar-winner Daniel Kaluuya is producing a live-action movie about childrens television icon Barney that will reportedly feature a story that leans into “millennial angst,” however that is defined, according to a Mattel Films boss, who name checks A24, of all studios, as inspiration for the project’s tone.

“We’re leaning into the millennial angst of the property rather than fine-tuning this for kids,” Mattel Films executive Kevin McKeon told the New Yorker in a profile on the studio’s many projects that they have in development. “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.”

McKeon also said that they’ve been selling the Barney movie to prospective partners as “an A24-type film,” citing the studio behind avant-garde fare like Oscar-winner genre-buster Everything Everywhere All at Once and boutique horror flicks like Ari Aster’s Hereditary and Midsommar.

Kaluuya attached himself to the project in 2019, and said in an interview with Yahoo UK earlier this month that the project is still in development because of the “high standards” he sets for his efforts as both an actor and a producer.

“Barney taught us, ‘I love you, you love me. Won’t you say you love me too?’ That’s one of the first songs I remember, and what happens when that isn’t true? I thought that was really heartbreaking,” Kaluuya said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly a few years back. “I have no idea why but it feels like that makes sense. It feels like there’s something unexpected that can be poignant but optimistic. Especially at this time now, I think that’s really, really needed.”

Mattel Films is also in active development of films based on its toy catalog, with upcoming films featuring IP like “Major Matt Mason” and Hot Wheels, and McKeon said the toymaker has been considering other concepts, like maybe even a heist movie based on Uno starring Beyoncé. Maybe.

The company’s next project after this summer’s sure-to-be-a-hit movie Barbie is a Masters of the Universe reboot from The Lost City filmmakers Adam and Aaron Nee.