By Andy Marston, Sports Pundit
Manchester United have reportedly agreed a deal with Lionsgate to develop a scripted drama series based on the club’s history, according to The Athletic.
The proposed series is still in a development phase but is described as being similar in format to The Crown, potentially spanning multiple eras of the club’s history across several seasons.
If the project is produced and sold, United would receive a guaranteed payment in the low millions of pounds, with future royalties shared between the club and Lionsgate.
Lionsgate brings significant experience in global storytelling, having produced and distributed major franchises including The Hunger Games, John Wick and Twilight, as well as sports-related films such as Warrior and Draft Day.
The move follows United’s decision to shelve a proposed behind-the-scenes Amazon docuseries last year, reportedly due to concerns around timing and on-pitch performance, and reflects a different approach to leveraging the club’s media IP.
Why It Matters
This signals a shift away from the now-familiar documentary playbook. Rather than chasing access or authenticity, a scripted drama allows clubs to lean into mythology, narrative and cultural impact. These are areas where football, particularly in the UK, is extraordinarily rich, yet still relatively underutilised as premium entertainment.
Looking backwards also allows United to monetise its heritage without exposing the current operation at a challenging moment (by its own high standards) on the pitch. History is safer ground, and in United’s case, exceptionally deep. It allows the club to control the narrative, pick the moments that matter, and package its identity in a way that isn’t dictated by current form or short-term results.
As Jo Redfern has pointed out, English football has more than a century of stories, characters and defining moments, yet very little of that history has been translated into premium scripted entertainment. A long-form drama offers scale and reach that
traditional sports content often struggles to achieve.
“This may be a ‘The Crown-style’ series, but there’s no reason it couldn’t be an animated series, or even vertical drama,” Redfern said. “As we’ve seen with the F1 movie, done well this kind of sports storytelling works and does have a halo effect on sports fandom.”
We’ve already seen lighter-touch versions of this model work. In November 2024, the Kansas City Chiefs released Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story, embedding the franchise into a fictional narrative without needing blockbuster budgets, Hollywood leads or years of development. It showed how a rights-holder can integrate its brand into entertainment in a way that feels additive rather than extractive.
We’ve also seen narrative-led entertainment materially shift awareness, relevance and engagement. Netflix’s House of Guinness landed during a surge of interest in the black stout and helped extend its cultural footprint even further (despite no direct involvement from Diageo). The Queen’s Gambit delivered an even clearer proof point, with Chess.com reporting a more than 500% surge in new user sign-ups following the series’ release.
For Manchester United, the upside doesn’t need to be as explosive as that to be meaningful. And it’s unlikely regardless the level of success that fan acquisition can or will be neatly attributed to this one project. What it can do is imprint identity at a global level. If executed well, a scripted series can introduce the club’s mythology to entirely new audiences, particularly in international markets, and reinforce why United remains one of the most recognisable sporting brands in the world.
There’s also a commercial dimension that matters. Scripted entertainment represents a revenue lever that sits outside traditional media rights, is less exposed to on-field performance, and allows clubs to monetise culture rather than competition. That alone should make it attractive to executives looking for more resilient income streams.
There’s little doubt this is a lever more rightsholders will start exploring. Drive to Survive showed that being first creates disproportionate upside, and that copying success rarely delivers the same results.
But if this works for United, it should at least force clubs to reassess how creatively they’re using their IP across scripted drama, animation, or other narrative formats, as Redfern notes. The opportunity set extends well beyond fly-on-the-wall docuseries. It’s time for rightsholders to be more ambitious with the IP they already possess
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