What Do We Know About The Upcoming Man Utd TV Series?

Did you catch the gripping Arsenal vs Man United game on Sunday? Whether you are a football fanatic or a casual watcher, it was a thrilling match with Matheus Cunha’s eleventh hour goal blowing the title race wide open.

The teams are two of the most storied in the nation, and most popular across the globe; you can spot budding young players donning the iconic red shirts on every (inhabited) continent across the globe, especially since the Premier League boom of the 1990s. Man United in particular boasts a long, looping history dating back to the club’s foundation in 1878, brimming with both success and controversies. Meanwhile stoic fans remain committed, weathering the storms right alongside the players and managers.

For those looking to relive Man Utd’s turbulent years of magic and strife, rumour has it a new television series is in the works which will fictionalise the football club’s historic highs and lows. With Line of Duty writer Jed Mercurio reportedly in talks to pen the scripts, here’s everything we know so far.

Manchester United TV Series: What We Know

According to The Athletic, a TV drama about Manchester United in the style of The Crown has been signed off by the world-renowned football club in partnership with Lionsgate. It’s set to focus on the history of the club, which calls Old Trafford home and has seen the likes of David Beckham, Wayne Rooney and George Best play among its ranks.

And if we’re to take that reference to The Crown at face value, it seems we have a long-running, detailed drama on our hands. Each season of The Crown, for instance, covered about a decade of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign – so perhaps this Man Utd drama will cover the entire history of the club since its 1870s inception and bring us right up to the present day. If so, it will be a few seasons’ time before an actor is cast to star as a ‘90s David Beckham…

So far, details are being kept firmly under wraps, and writer Jed Mercurio’s involvement has not been officially confirmed just yet. Best known for penning the long-running, twisty-turny, soon-to-return police procedural drama Line of Duty, Mercurio is one of Britain’s very best screenwriters. Other titles under his belt include Bodyguard starring Richard Madden and Keeley Hawes, Bloodlands starring James Nesbitt and Trigger Point starring Vicky McClure.

His next (confirmed) project reunites him with Madden, who is set to lead thriller Trinity as the Secretary of Defense opposite a naval officer played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw. Meanwhile in November the BBC revealed Line of Duty is set to return for a seventh series, starring Martin Compston, McClure and Adrian Dunbar, once again penned by Mercurio.

Lionsgate is best known as a film production company (having released blockbusters spanning The Hunger Games and Twilight to John Wick), but it is also behind many high profile television dramas, recently including the likes of The Studio, The Hunting Wives, Yellowjackets, A Gentleman in Moscow and Queenie, with a back catalogue including Nashville, Grey’s Anatomy, Orange is the New Black and so much more.

One thing you might notice is that these shows have aired on everything from Apple TV to Channel 4. This is because Lionsgate does not always distribute the shows it creates on the channels it owns (like Starz for example). That means that though it is being funded by a huge American corporation, the Man Utd TV series won’t necessarily air in the US first, and could indeed be snapped up by a British channel later down the line.

Release Date

The Man Utd TV series is still in development and has not been officially announced, so there is no release date just yet. Stay tuned for more.