Gabrielle Union had Bring It On fans going wild after she confirmed a sequel to the 2000 cheerleading comedy is in the works! The 50-year-old actress, who starred as Kirsten Dunst’s rival Isis in the original film, revealed she is “developing” a film centering around Isis’ high school cheer squad, the East Compton Clovers. “We’ve been developing a sequel that centers on the [Clovers],” Gabrielle told ET on Friday, January 20, adding, “We are working on it.”
The confirmation comes only four months after the actress hinted at a possible sequel on her Twitter. Replying to a tweet from a fan who was celebrating the 22nd anniversary of the film, Gabrielle wrote, “Hmmmm so Isis might have a teenager #BringItOn.”
Fans, of course, did not take this lightly, as they bombarded social media with comments like, “SO YOU’RE SAYING THERES A CONTINUATION?!?!!!!!!!!! we neeeeed a clovers focused #BringItOn.” Another wrote, “Please don’t play with my emotions, we need a real sequel.” Pop star Chloe Bailey even jumped in to offer her acting services, tweeting, “i wanna be apart.”
Gabrielle, who shares children Zaya, 14, and Kaavia, 3, with Dwyane Wade, shot to stardom in Bring It On alongside Kirsten. However, Gabrielle recently shared that she has some regrets about her role in the film. During a visit to Good Morning America, she expressed concerns about “muzzling” her character Isis, whom she also penned an apology letter to in her book “You Got Anything Stronger?
In the movie, Isis learns her team’s choreography has been stolen by a rival team, which would make anyone rightfully upset, but Gabrielle said she felt she couldn’t play it that way. “Black girls aren’t allowed to be angry. Certainly not demonstratively angry, and I muzzled her,” she explained. “I had muzzled her and made her this gracious, decent leader, and I was still a villain in that movie. I did all that shape-shifting for a character, and then I realized I was doing that to myself, too. I wasn’t allowing myself the full range of my humanity.”
With that in mind, Gabrielle said she would have definitely made changes to her performance. “I would have allowed her full humanity, and part of being a full human is the ability to express rage when harmed,” she detailed. “When you don’t really allow yourself your full range of emotion and you muzzle your own emotions, it allows people to think, ‘Maybe what I did wasn’t that bad.’ I would have given her all the anger.”
Although she may have had some reservations about the way she handled the original production, Gabrielle is obviously on board for the sequel. Even before her confirmation to ET and her cryptic tweet, the star had thrown around ideas for a second act during a Zoom reunion in August 2020 with Kirsten and director Peyton Reed. “The impact, 20 years later, that this movie had and continues to have, that’s awesome,” Gabrielle said. “So whatever that we may one day come up with, I mean, Kirsten, maybe we’re like co-heads of the PTA. I don’t know.”