Emma Vardy, in Basel, & Emily Atkinson
BBC News
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Bend It Like Beckham is set for a sequel more than 20 years after its release, its director has confirmed to the BBC.
Gurinder Chadha teased the revival in Basel on Saturday, where England’s Lionesses are preparing to face world champions Spain in Sunday’s Euro 2025 final.
The 2002 film, which starred Keira Knightley and Parminder Nagra, is credited with inspiring a generation of women to take up football.
“We’ve been part of changing the game for women, so it felt like this was a good time for me to go back and investigate the characters,” she said.
Chadha has earmarked 2027 for the next instalment, to mark both the film’s 25th anniversary and the Fifa Women’s World Cup in Brazil.
People are still “a bit iffy” about women’s football, Bend It Like Beckham director says
She said she was still unsure what form the sequel might take, but suggested it could either be another film or a television series.
The director told the BBC she had been asked almost twice a week since the original film was released to come up with a sequel.
“A lot has changed since the original movie, but I think that people still don’t think that women should play football,” she said.
“There are people who still don’t take it seriously, although the Lionesses are riding high.”
“I’ve left it a while, but I thought: look at the Euros, look at the Lionesses.”
Chadha said she hoped not only to reunite the original cast, but that members of the current England squad would be “queuing up” to take on cameo roles.
Grossing almost £60m on a budget of £3.5m, Bend It Like Beckham was a surprise hit that told the story of a young British-Indian girl with a passion for football.
Chadha told the BBC that she had not expected the original to be so successful.
Her intention, she said, had been to “uplift girls, girls who grew up like me, who were always being told how to dress, how to look, what to say, what not to say”.
“What I did was say you can do what you want, and you can have it all, and I think that’s a really great message to put out again. I think there’s still stuff to say, and stuff to challenge.”