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The 21-year-old movie Bend It Like Beckham could be getting a sequel. And it's all thanks to the 2023 Women's World Cup, Screenrant reported.
Director Gurinder Chadha stated that there could be a Bend It Like Beckham follow-up. The 2002 movie is about two English girls who wanted to pursue professional careers in football despite their parents' objections. The title refers to David Beckham's curling free kick technique, also known as bending.
In an interview with Metro, Chadha said that with the recent Women's World Cup, the increased interest in the sport prompted her to develop a possible sequel. She said, “With all this talk of the World Cup and the popularity of women’s football, in the past I haven’t thought about.”
She added, “But with the recent success of football, I just feel like I’m starting to percolate an idea for a possible sequel of some kind.”
Chadha, who co-wrote the movie, also said that she was reluctant to follow up the movie, “because I just thought the way Parminder [Nagra] and Keira [Knightley] played it, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Archie Panjabi, I could never really follow that up and create that same magic in the same way.”
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The movie earned $76.6 million and is the highest-grossing association football film ever made.
The idea for a sequel came to Chadha due to the England Lionesses' success in the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup. While the national team lost to Spain, this was the first time they made it to the final round.
Several of the Lionesses also said that they started playing football after watching Bend It Like Beckham. The film's other legacy is its queer representation, and has long been praised by the LGBTQ+ community.
Knightley (Jules) has said in interviews that she thought Jules and Jess should have ended up with each other. She also stated that she's open to star in a sequel.
