New Irish revenge drama ‘Bad Bridgets’ casts Daisy Edgar-Jones and Emilia Jones as leads

Daisy Edgar‑Jones and Emilia Jones are set to lead a story of grit, survival, and sisterhood across two continents.

Bad Bridgets will transport audiences from the hardships of famine-era Ireland to the bustling, dangerous streets of 19th‑century New York.

The film is rooted in real historical research, uncovering the hidden lives of Irish women who navigated society’s harshest challenges.

Here’s a closer look at the cast, creative team, and the historical world that’s about to be brought vividly to life on screen.

The Cast & Creative Force

Daisy Edgar-Jones brings emotional precision and rising star power to Bad Bridgets, following acclaimed turns that balance intimacy and scale. Her casting signals an actor ready to carry a historically grounded, emotionally complex lead performance.

Emilia Jones complements Edgar-Jones with range and fierce commitment, known for delivering layered, resilient characters. Together, they promise the film a believable sisterhood at the center, with performances likely to anchor the movie’s emotional and moral stakes.

Rich Peppiatt, who directed Kneecap, is the film’s director and co-writer. Peppiatt’s background in culturally rooted stories suggests a film attentive to texture, community life, and the politics of identity that shaped these women’s lives.

The film’s logline is described as “A mysterious letter sets a young woman on a perilous journey from famine-ravaged Ireland to 19th-century New York, where she joins the ranks of Irish Bridgets creating mayhem in the city.”

Inspired by Forgotten History

The film adapts the historian’s work Bad Bridget, which reconstructs the lives of Irish women who appear in archival records as criminals or institutionalized figures. The book and associated research expose how poverty, gender, and prejudice intersect.

Those archival sources include court dockets, prison records, and newspaper reports. Scholars Elaine Farrell and Leanne McCormick employed meticulous archival methods to recover the fragmented lives that mainstream migration histories often overlook.

The research grew into a public podcast and an exhibition, expanding the audience for these stories beyond academia. That cultural traction created a bridge between rigorous scholarship and cinematic adaptation, attracting producers interested in historically grounded drama.

“This is a new world for us,” said Elaine Farrell, describing the historians’ surprise and delight that their research would reach a much wider public via film.

Story & Setting

Set across famine-struck Ireland and 19th-century New York, the film will explore the Atlantic crossing, crowded tenements, labor markets, and the legal systems that shaped the lives of immigrant women. Expect gritty period detail and moral complexity throughout.

The sisters’ arc moves from domestic hopes and escape from abuse toward urban survival. They encounter networks of women, Bridgets, who survive by various means, some illicit and some cooperative, in ways that complicate simple judgments.

Visual and design pedigree matters. Oscar-winning production designer James Price and costume designer Kate Hawley are attached. Their involvement promises material authenticity that supports performance and narrative atmosphere rather than mere ornamentation.

Production Team & Backing

LuckyChap Entertainment, Margot Robbie’s production company, is producing alongside Coup d’État Films. LuckyChap’s track record of female-driven, award-oriented projects signals both commercial ambitions and a focus on powerful women’s roles.

Coup d’État Films brings local production expertise and cultural sensitivity. Their involvement should help the film balance Hollywood resources with regional authenticity and respectful handling of archival material and community history.

FilmNation is handling international sales, with WME Independent managing U.S. rights. That commercial infrastructure aims to place the film in international festivals and secure widespread distribution after post-production completes.

Academics involved in the original project will likely consult on the adaptation. The historians have expressed excitement and cautious trust about the cinematic treatment of their research, with a mix of anticipation and thoughtful reservation about creative choices.

Why “Bad Bridgets” Matters

The title reclaims a derogatory label once applied broadly to Irish emigrant women. That reclamation reframes narratives that previously dismissed women’s lived choices as moral failure rather than survival strategies within brutal social constraints.

The film’s feminist core emphasizes agency under duress. It reframes criminalized acts as strategies of survival and resistance, encouraging audiences to consider the social and economic pressures that shaped impossible choices.

Using revenge as a narrative engine turns historical inequity into a dramatic demand for justice. The revenge element can offer catharsis while interrogating the social forces that allowed exploitation and marginalization to flourish.

If handled with care, Bad Bridgets could shift how migration histories represent women, moving from moralizing shorthand to empathetic, complicated portraiture that recognizes agency and vulnerability in equal measure.

Timeline & Expectations

The film is in preproduction with a planned spring 2026 shoot across Ireland and Northern Ireland. That timeline allows significant research consultation, production design, and casting to align with historical authenticity goals.

With Edgar-Jones and Emilia Jones attached and a powerful creative team, industry expectations are high. The project aims both for critical recognition and broad audience reach, blending arthouse sensibility with accessible storytelling.

If the film remains true to the historians’ research while using dramatic fiction to shape narrative flow, it could become a major period drama that centers women’s history in an emotionally resonant way.

TL;DR

• Daisy Edgar-Jones and Emilia Jones star in Bad Bridgets, directed by Rich Peppiatt.
• Adapted from the book Bad Bridget: Crime, Mayhem and the Lives of Irish Emigrant Women.
• Produced by LuckyChap and Coup d’État, shooting in spring 2026 in Ireland or Northern Ireland.
• The film reclaims the term “Bridget” to center survival, resistance, and forgotten women’s histories.

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This article was made with AI assistance and human editing.