Rich Peppiatt, the director of Kneecap, has assembled a stellar cast for his historical thriller Bad Bridgets, with Netflix acquiring the streaming rights.
The filmmaker Rich Peppiatt drew critical notice with the acclaimed Kneecap, which hit France in 2025. The film told the rise of the hip-hop group of the same name and their civil rights battles in the face of British oppression toward Northern Ireland. A year later, the Irish director will continue exploring his homeland’s history, but in a very different genre with Bad Bridgets. This Netflix-bound historical thriller will be based on the essay Bad Bridget: Crime, Mayhem and the Lives of Irish Emigrant Women written by Elaine Farrell and Leanne McCormick.
Published in 2023, the book draws on their academic research into the role of immigrant women in the United States following the Great Famine, spanning the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It delves into court cases showing how Irish women wound up in prison for reasons some would call dubious. To bring these stories to screen in Bad Bridgets, Rich Peppiatt has cast the lead roles for Emilia Jones (CODA, Ghostland) and Alison Oliver (Saltburn, Hurlevant). And they’ll be well supported, given the star-studded lineup just announced.
Bad Bridgets and Company
Indeed, Netflix revealed the rest of the cast of Bad Bridgets with a lineup of prestigious Irish and British actors: Colin Farrell, Steve Coogan, Domhnall Gleeson, Himesh Patel, Charlie Heaton, Niamh Algar and Simone Kirby. Kirby — who previously appeared in Kneecap — has also turned up in series such as Peaky Blinders and His Dark Materials: The Crossroads of Worlds, and starred in Ken Loach’s Jimmy’s Hall, which was set against the backdrop of Ireland’s War of Independence.
On the Irish side, we’ll of course see the indispensable Colin Farrell, who earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination for The Banshees of Inisherin in 2023, a film also set during Ireland’s War of Independence. He will star alongside his countryman Domhnall Gleeson (Ex Machina, The Revenant) and the rising Niamh Algar, who most recently appeared in The Iris Affair alongside Tom Hollander and played Sue/Mary in Raised by Wolves.
Côté britannique, on retrouve Steve Coogan, dont la carrière en tant qu’acteur est bien remplie avec Le Tour du monde en 80 jours ou encore La Nuit au musée. Il est également connu pour sa grande implication dans l’écriture de ses rôles et a notamment été nommé pour les Oscar du meilleur scénario et du meilleur film pour Philomena en 2014.
Enfin, on retrouve Himesh Patel, dont la carrière a explosé avec Yesterday de Danny Boyle et qui sera bientôt à l’affiche de L’Odyssée de Christopher Nolan (lui qui était déjà dans Tenet), et Charlie Heaton, bien connu des abonnés de la plateforme au N rouge puisqu’il incarnait Jonathan Byers dans Stranger Things.
In addition to this formidable lineup, the crew also features top-tier professionals, which is quite promising. Thus, Oscar-winning production designer James Price (The Shape of Water) and the costume designer Kate Hawley, recently Oscar-nominated for Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein (also released on Netflix), will be on board. All of these talents will come together for the production of Bad Bridgets, set to begin very soon in Northern Ireland.
No release date has been announced yet, even though it is expected (unfortunately) to premiere directly on Netflix.
