Bend It Like Beckham follow-up in pipeline more than 20 years after original film was released | OneFootball

More than two decades after the release of Bend It Like Beckham, writer and director Gurinder Chadha OBE has announced she is planning to revive the hugely popular story.

On the eve of the final of the 2025 Euros, where the Lionesses will try to defend their crown against Spain in Basel on Sunday, Chadha has spoken of plans for a follow up to the film that starred Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. What format it takes, whether a sequel to the feature film, series or alternative, will be decided in due course.

“I am so happy to be here in Basel for the Euros, the atmosphere is amazing,” said Chadha. “What I can share with you today is my very clear wish to bring the beloved characters from Bend It Like Beckham back to you and audiences globally very, very soon. Women’s football is more competitive, more exciting, and more global than ever. It is an honor for me to be a small part of it.”

Chadha, who has fielded requests for a return of the story for years but has waited for the right plot to come to her so as to not tarnish the legacy of the original, added: “After 23 years and being unable to come up with a storyline that was as good as the original, I have finally found a fantastic story for a Bend It Like Beckham follow up.”

Released in 2002, Bend It Like Beckham showed football obsessed Jesminder “Jess” Bhamra balance joining the Hounslow Harriers and finding herself on the pitch while grappling with family, cultural and societal expectations of what a Punjabi British girl should be. It was a huge box office hit and is the only film distributed in every country in the world, including North Korea.

“The original film, for me, was about lifting up girls and saying you can do and be anything you want, even though society dictates what you can and can’t do,” said Chadha, who has also confirmed US women’s national team manager, Emma Hayes, is collaborating on the new project. “That message is still relevant today. Even though women’s football rides so high around the world, and that’s amazing and it’s wonderful that the original film has been part of that legacy, I feel there is more that I can do and so that’s what I’m writing. It will be hard hitting, of course, but it will also be incredibly joyous, how can it not be as a follow up to Bend It Like Beckham?”

“I’m super excited to have connected with Emma who, when I first met her, said: ‘On my god, I was Keira Knightley, that was me!’ I know all the amazing work that she is doing both in front and behind the scenes for women’s football, so have brought her on board as a collaborator as I write the script which I’m working on right now.”

Hayes, who won seven league titles, two League Cups and five FA Cups with Chelsea before moving into international football, winning Olympic gold two months after taking up her post, said: “I met Gurinder at a chance meeting in Cannes in June. It felt like the stars aligned for us to meet. I told her the massive impact the film had had on me when I was younger and that I was Keira Knightley in Bend it Like Beckham. I cried in the cinema watching the film because I felt just like Jess and Jules.”

Hayes moved to the US early on in her career in search of greater opportunities and professionalism in the women’s game and it played a pivotal role in her development. “There was no hope for women’s football in Britain then, so I was going to the US to try my luck there,” said Hayes. “I could never have dreamed of how much that film helped change the women’s game. Now, I have the best job in world football as head coach of the US women’s national team. Like I said, the stars aligned and now I’m helping Gurinder with all my experience and insight in the game.”

Lisa Nandy MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, who will be attending the Euro 2025 final with Chadha, described the announcement as a “brilliant moment for British film”.

“Bend It Like Beckham captured something so special about Britain, our spirit, our diversity, and our ability to dream big in the face of challenge,” she said. “Gurinder Chadha gave us a story that resonated far beyond the screen and became part of our cultural DNA.

“The announcement of a follow up is a brilliant moment for British film. It builds on a legacy that continues to inspire and shows the world what British storytelling can do. Productions like this help tell our national story, remind us who we are, and who we can be.”

Header image: [Photograph: Bskyb/Allstar]