A 2019 film about a young woman’s unlikely path from a small British wrestling family to the global stage of the WWE is getting a new life. Dwayne Johnson, the former professional wrestler turned one of Hollywood’s most bankable actors, is producing a stage musical adaptation of Fighting with My Family for the British theater. He is reuniting with Stephen Merchant, who wrote and directed the original film, to bring the project to life.
The film, which starred Florence Pugh as WWE superstar Paige, told the true story of Saraya-Jade Bevis, who grew up in a wrestling family in Norwich, England and eventually rose to become a champion in the world’s most watched professional wrestling organization. It was a story about ambition, identity, and the specific kind of pressure that comes with being the one person in a family who makes it to the biggest stage imaginable.
Why the story was always destined for the theatre
Merchant, who has been closely attached to the project since its earliest days as a documentary and then a feature film, said the transition to a musical felt inevitable. His approach to the original film was already rooted in theatrical instincts, treating each wrestling match as its own dramatic set piece building toward a climactic finale. The story of a young woman breaking through a field of larger-than-life characters to claim her moment lends itself naturally to the emotional scale and spectacle of live performance.
The plan is to develop the production for British audiences, though no venue, casting, or opening timeline has been announced publicly.
A project close to Johnson’s roots
For Johnson, the project carries personal resonance that goes beyond his role as a producer. His entire public identity was shaped by professional wrestling before he transitioned into film and television, and the world of the WWE has remained a consistent thread throughout his career. He has spoken previously about the storytelling dimension of professional wrestling and its ability to generate genuine emotional connection with a live audience, qualities that translate directly to the demands of live theatre.
The production is being developed under his Seven Bucks Productions banner, the company he co-founded that has been behind a number of his film and television projects in recent years. Johnson recently starred in The Smashing Machine, further cementing his continued interest in stories that explore the physical and psychological demands of competitive performance.
What the adaptation could become
Fighting with My Family occupies a specific emotional space that has historically proven effective on stage. It is a working-class underdog story with heart, humor, and high stakes, set against a backdrop that most audiences associate with spectacle rather than sincerity. The challenge and the opportunity for the stage adaptation will be in translating that combination of grit and warmth into a live format where everything from the choreography to the music must carry the emotional weight the story demands.
No creative team beyond Johnson and Merchant has been confirmed at this stage, and the production remains in early development. But the ambition behind the project is clear, and both producers have the track record to suggest it could find a significant audience when it eventually arrives.
