It’s been over a year since the second season of Derry Girls graced our screens, and fans are unsurprisingly itching for more. With series three still a while away due to coronavirus concerns, creator Lisa McGee has offered some good news: a potential film adaptation.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1 last week (July 20), McGee said: “For a while I didn’t know if it would work, but now an idea is starting to vaguely form in my head, so after series three, I’ll think about that a bit more. I’d like to do it and I think the cast would too, so that would be the long-term plan.”
The Northern Irish sitcom is set in the 90s during the Troubles, and explores the tumultuous twists and turns of teenage girlhood against the backdrop of bomb scares and political turmoil.
The third season of the show was due to be filming now, but had to be postponed due to the ongoing pandemic – the cast have reportedly not even seen the scripts yet. “We should have been shooting it now, but we obviously had to push back,” McGee explained. “We are waiting until it’s safe as there’s a lot of stuff to work out.”
The writer continued: “The show is quite complicated to film in these circumstances and we want to do it as well as we possibly can. We want it to be brilliant, so we’re trying to figure a lot of stuff out at the minute, but I think we’ll get there.”
McGee added that the next season will see the main characters “grow up a little bit”. The show stars Saoirse-Monica Jackon (Erin), Nicola Coughlan (Clare), Jamie-Lee O’Donnell (Michelle), Louisa Harland (Orla), and Dylan Llewellyn (James), all of whom will be returning for series three, and appear likely to be on board with the film adaptation.
Speaking to Dazed in 2018, McGee said Derry Girls is “about friendship more than anything”, adding: “It’s such a unique situation when you look at it. No one from any other place in the UK could have had the same experiences as us growing up in the early 90s, but there’s a university to being a teenager. You’re so selfish that what’s going on in your world is more important than what’s going on in the wider world around you.”
Last month, Saoirse Ronan became an ‘honorary Derry Girl’, joining the cast for a socially-distanced sketch for RTÉ’s Comic Relief.
While you’re waiting for Derry Girls’ third season and its premiere on the big screen, you can get ready for McGee’s new show, The Deceived, a psychological thriller starring Normal People’s Paul Mescal, which is set to air later this year. Watch the trailer here.