Jason Statham and Guy Ritchie are heading back to the London underworld where their partnership began. Netflix has announced Dogfight, a new revenge thriller written, directed and produced by Ritchie and starring Statham, marking the seventh time the actor and filmmaker have worked together.
Netflix describes the film as “a stylish revenge actioner set in the London criminal underworld.” Production is scheduled to begin in early 2027, with filming taking place in the United Kingdom. Plot details are being kept under wraps, no cast beyond Statham has been named, and no release date has been announced.
- Dogfight is the seventh film collaboration between Jason Statham and Guy Ritchie
- Ritchie writes, directs and produces, while Statham stars and produces
- Filming begins in early 2027 in the U.K.
- Netflix has not announced a release date or any additional cast
The announcement and what it confirms
The news broke on November 3, with Netflix, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety all reporting the project within hours of one another. Ritchie is handling the screenplay and the direction, and he is also a producer. Statham leads the film and produces through his company, Punch Palace Productions, which has been a fixture on his recent action titles.
The film is a co-production between Black Bear, Ritchie’s Toff Guy Films and Punch Palace. Ritchie and Statham produce alongside Ivan Atkinson of Toff Guy Films and John Friedberg of Black Bear, a team that has worked together on several recent projects.
Netflix’s own announcement leans into familiarity. Its editorial team points to the breadth of the duo’s earlier work, from scams and card games to espionage and an armored-truck heist, before promising that Dogfight returns to the crooks and chancers of London, complete with a cast of colorful criminals. Nobody involved is pretending this is a departure, and that appears to be the point.
Netflix also shared the news on X:
From a 1998 debut to a seventh film
The partnership stretches back more than a quarter of a century. Ritchie’s first feature, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, arrived in 1998 and was also Statham’s first film role. Ritchie had noticed Statham in an advertising campaign for the fashion label French Connection, and the former diver and street-market salesman went from a few seconds on television to a leading part in a gangster hit that helped define British crime cinema in the late 1990s.
Snatch followed in 2000 and cemented the pairing, with Statham as a fast-talking boxing promoter caught between rival gangs. Revolver came in 2005, a more experimental and polarizing con-game thriller. Then there was a long gap. The two did not reunite on a feature until Wrath of Man in 2021, a grim, humor-light revenge story set in Los Angeles in which Statham played a new hire at an armored-truck company with secrets of his own. In 2023 they made Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, a lighter spy caper that took the cast across several countries.
- 1998Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Ritchie’s debut and Statham’s first film
- 2000Snatch
- 2005Revolver
- 2021Wrath of Man
- 2023Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre
- NextViva La Madness, which has finished shooting
- Early 2027Dogfight begins production in the U.K.
The sixth collaboration, Viva La Madness, has already been shot. Based on a novel by J.J. Connolly, the author of Layer Cake, it stars Statham alongside Vinnie Jones, Jason Isaacs, Ben Foster, Jonny Lee Miller and Camila Mendes. Ritchie has said that production wrapped and that he enjoyed making it. Black Bear holds distribution rights in North America, and Amazon MGM Studios has most international territories. A firm release date has not been confirmed, which means Dogfight will begin shooting before audiences have seen its predecessor.
Why a London revenge story fits both men
Revenge is familiar ground for the pair. Wrath of Man was built around a father’s search for the people who killed his son, and it found a fresh audience on streaming years after its release. Dogfight appears to take the same emotional engine and move it back to the city where Ritchie’s reputation was built, in a world of rival crews, debts and old scores.
That return to London matters. Ritchie has spent much of the past few years working on a larger canvas, from wartime adventure to fantasy and spy comedy. The Netflix series The Gentlemen and his recent crime television work have kept him close to the genre that made him famous, but a feature set in the criminal underworld of the capital is a different proposition, and it gives Statham a chance to work in the setting where audiences first met him.
Not every observer is pleased by how familiar the formula sounds. The A.V. Club’s coverage of the announcement teased the lack of surprise in the genre choice and suggested that Ritchie might give Statham some quick-fire patter reminiscent of Lock, Stock instead of the stoic hard man he has played in many recent films. Whether Dogfight leans toward comedy or the colder tone of Wrath of Man is one of the biggest open questions, and Netflix’s language so far, built around the words “stylish” and “revenge,” does not settle it.
Ritchie’s growing Netflix relationship
Dogfight deepens a relationship that Netflix has been building with Ritchie for some time. The streamer is already home to The Gentlemen, his crime series spun out of his 2019 film. Season two premiered in September 2026, and a third season is already in production. Reports differ in how they frame the milestone, but several outlets note that Dogfight will be the first film Ritchie makes specifically for Netflix and the first Statham and Ritchie movie made for the platform.
For Netflix, the logic is easy to see. The streamer has leaned heavily on action vehicles built around recognizable stars, and Statham is among the most reliable names in the genre. Pairing him with a director who has a distinctive voice and an existing relationship with the service lowers the risk, and a London crime story travels well across international markets.
For readers who want to follow the story as it develops, Every Movie Plug’s Film News section will carry updates on casting, the production start and any release information, while our articles section has features on the directors and films shaping the year in cinema.
Two crowded calendars
Dogfight will arrive in a crowded period for both men. Ritchie’s most recent film, In the Grey, reached audiences earlier this year with Jake Gyllenhaal and Henry Cavill in the leads. His next theatrical release, Wife & Dog, a crime thriller starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Rosamund Pike and Anthony Hopkins, is scheduled for February 19, 2027 from Black Bear. Viva La Madness is in post-production, and The Gentlemen continues on Netflix, so the filmmaker has several projects in different stages at once.
Statham’s schedule is just as full. He starred in Shelter in January and Mutiny in August, and The Beekeeper 2 is set for theaters on January 15, 2027, directed by Timo Tjahjanto. That puts his sequel in cinemas right around the time the Dogfight shoot is expected to be getting under way in the U.K. The overlap is a reminder of how quickly Statham moves between productions, and how much of his recent output is now produced through Punch Palace, the company that also stands behind Dogfight.
What we still don’t know
For all the excitement, the announcement leaves a long list of unanswered questions. Netflix has not named any of the actors who will share the screen with Statham, although the promise of colorful criminals suggests a sizable ensemble. There is no word on the film’s budget, its length, or whether it will be given any theatrical window before it reaches the service. The company has also not said when audiences can expect to see it, and with filming not due to start until next year, a release before late 2027 looks unlikely.
The plot is the biggest mystery. A revenge story in the London underworld could mean almost anything, from a lone hit-man narrative to a sprawling tale of betrayal among rival families, and Ritchie has a habit of keeping his scripts closely guarded until trailers arrive. The title itself, which suggests violence, rivalry and a fight that is not entirely fair, offers few concrete clues.
What is clear is that the long collaboration between Ritchie and Statham shows no sign of slowing. Twenty-eight years after a debut film made both men names in British cinema, they are still working together, and Dogfight will test whether the partnership can deliver the kind of sharp, funny and violent crime story that first brought them together. Every Movie Plug will update this report as casting, a start date and a release window are confirmed.
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- Screen International: Guy Ritchie’s ‘Viva La Madness’ starts London shoot
- The Playlist: ‘Jason Statham Stole My Bike’ Dated For August 6, 2027
- Tom’s Guide: Netflix’s newest No. 1 movie is an intense action thriller with Jason Statham
- UPI: Jason Statham, Guy Ritchie to reunite on Netflix thriller ‘Dogfight’
- Variety: Jason Statham and Guy Ritchie’s ‘Dogfight’ at Netflix