Millie Bobby Brown has exited “Perfect,” the Kerri Strug biopic she was set to star in and produce at Netflix, and the project has been shut down entirely as a result.
According to sources cited by Deadline, Brown’s departure came down to creative differences with producers.
Neither Netflix nor Brown’s representatives made any comment. The film had been scheduled to begin production on June 8, 2026. That is no longer happening.
The cancellation ends what had been a complicated years-long journey for a project that many people in Hollywood considered one of the more compelling biopics in development.
The story it was meant to tell, one of the most famous moments in Olympic history, remains untold on screen.
What Was Perfect Going To Be?
Perfect was a Netflix Original biographical sports drama centered on Kerri Strug, the gymnast who became one of the defining images of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Strug was a member of the American women’s gymnastics team known as the Magnificent Seven, the group that won Team USA’s first-ever team gold medal in gymnastics.
The vault that made her famous came after she had already injured her ankle badly on her first attempt.
She vaulted again anyway, landed cleanly, and then collapsed as her ankle gave out.
Coach Béla Károlyi carried her off the mat and then carried her to the medals podium as well.
The photograph of that moment ran everywhere. She appeared on the Wheaties box. Saturday Night Live did a parody.
She became one of the most recognisable athletes of her era.
The screenplay was written by Ronnie Sandahl and was adapted from Strug’s memoir “Landing on My Feet: A Diary of Dreams.”
Brown was attached not only to star as Strug but to produce the film under her production company PMCA.
Lead producers were Nik Bower of Riverstone Pictures and Thomas Benski of Magna Studios. 30West was executive producing.
The story was described as following Strug’s path to clinching the gold medal in a moment that required her to perform at the highest level while in serious physical pain.
The Long Road To Cancellation
This project’s history stretches back roughly six years. Around 2020, director Olivia Wilde became attached to Sandahl’s script and publicly called it the best screenplay she had ever read.
Kerri Strug herself expressed enthusiasm for it. The production stalled. Thomasin McKenzie was briefly linked to the lead role in 2021 before that iteration of the project also went quiet.
The project came back to life in September 2025. Deadline reported that Brown was in final negotiations to star, with Gia Coppola now installed as director.
Coppola, granddaughter of Francis Ford Coppola, niece of Sofia Coppola, had most recently directed The Last Showgirl, the Pamela Anderson film that earned significant critical praise for its character-driven emotional depth.
Cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw, who had worked with Coppola on three previous films, was also set to come aboard.
Netflix was eyeing a 2026 shoot. Production Weekly confirmed in early April 2026 that cameras were scheduled to roll on June 8 and wrap on July 29.
That confirmation made Perfect feel, for the first time in years, like it was actually going to happen.
Then it came apart. Coppola departed the project earlier this year, replaced by Australian director Cate Shortland, who directed Black Widow for Marvel in 2021.
Then Brown departed as well, citing creative differences with producers. With both the lead actress and the most recent director gone, Netflix had no path forward and the project was officially killed.
What Was The Real Reason Behind The Cancellation?
“Creative differences” is a phrase that almost always means more than it says. Neither Brown nor Netflix has elaborated on the specifics.
The production had already gone through two directors, Wilde, then Coppola, then Shortland, before Brown’s departure.
Whether the specific creative dispute involved the script, the direction the story was taking under new leadership, the tone of the film, or something else entirely has not been disclosed.
What is known is that Brown was deeply invested in the project, she was co-writing, starring, and producing, which makes a departure over creative differences more significant than a standard lead actress exit.
The fact that both Coppola and Brown left within a relatively short window suggests the production was encountering friction at multiple creative levels rather than a single isolated disagreement.
Who is Kerri Strug?
Kerri Strug is 48 years old. After her gymnastics career ended following the 1996 Games, she went on to become an elementary school teacher and worked in several government roles including positions in the White House and the Justice Department.
The vault remains among the most replayed moments in American sports television history, and the image of Károlyi carrying her has been printed, referenced, and reproduced for three decades.
A film about her story would have arrived in a moment when Olympic gymnastics has been intensely covered, the USA Gymnastics scandal and the Larry Nassar case brought enormous renewed attention to the culture around elite gymnastics, and the 1996 Magnificent Seven team has been examined repeatedly in that context.
Perfect would have been entering that conversation directly.
Are Brown and Netflix Still Working Together?
Netflix made a point of noting that the relationship with Brown is intact. Brown just completed five seasons of Stranger Things, which she started filming at 12 years old.
The show made her one of the most recognisable young actresses in the world and began her career in a way that gave her unusual leverage as a producer and creative collaborator at a relatively young age.
Two Netflix films featuring Brown remain in progress. Enola Holmes 3 is currently in post-production and is expected to release sometime in 2026.
Brown originated the role of Enola Holmes, the fictional younger sister of Sherlock Holmes, in the franchise and has produced both previous films alongside starring in them.
The other project is Just Picture It, a rom-com directed by Lee Toland Krieger. Brown stars as a character named Bea and is also producing.
The film co-stars Gabriel LaBelle, Idina Menzel, and Margo Martindale. The premise involves two college students whose phones begin showing them photographs from ten years in the future where they are a married couple with children, despite having never met.
It is Brown’s first straight romantic comedy lead and represents a deliberate pivot toward a lighter, more mainstream register than the fantasy and action films she has primarily made since Stranger Things.
Perfect, and the Kerri Strug story, will have to wait for someone else.
