Entertainment

Bridget Jones is back: Zellweger will star in fourth film – but a key love interest won’t return

Bridget Jones is back: Zellweger will star in fourth film - but a key love interest won't return

Renee Zellweger and Hugh Grant are set to return for a fourth Bridget Jones film.

Two-time Oscar winner Zellweger is back in Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, while Grant reprises his role as rapscallion Daniel Cleaver.

Emma Thompson, who starred in the third film as Bridget’s despairing obstetrician, also returns, with 12 Years A Slave star Chiwetel Ejiofor and One Day actor Leo Woodall joining the cast.

Mark Darcy, played by Colin Firth, will not be back this time.

Image:
Colin Firth, who plays Mark Darcy, will not be in the new film. Pic: Alamy

British author Helen Fielding previously said she had decided to write Bridget’s love out of the third book because she didn’t want Bridget to become “a smug married”.

In the Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy book, Bridget is a widow in her 50s with two children after Mark’s death some years earlier. However, details of the film’s plot and whether it will follow the book have not yet been revealed.

The film is set for US release on Valentine’s Day 2025. Its UK release date has not been announced.

Based on the 1996 book, Bridget Jones’s Diary the film was released in 2001 to wide acclaim, starring US star Zellweger as a 30-something chardonnay-swilling British singleton, obsessed with her weight and finding a man.

Read more:
Made In Chelsea star reveals stoma bag
Love, loss and addiction: Amy Winehouse biopic premieres

Chiwetel Ejiofor and Leo Woodall. Pic: Reuters/AP
Image:
(L-R) Chiwetel Ejiofor and Leo Woodall are joining the cast. Pic: Reuters/AP

British actors Firth and Grant played the two men fighting for her attention.

The sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason, followed in 2004, taking the story to Thailand, while the third instalment, Bridget Jones’s Baby, was released in 2016, and saw Firth’s Darcy competing with billionaire US love guru Jack Qwant, played by Patrick Dempsey, for Bridget’s attention.

Follow Sky News on WhatsApp
Follow Sky News on WhatsApp

Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News

Tap here

Zellweger last appeared on the big screen in Judy, for which she picked up her second Oscar in 2020 for her portrayal of famed singer and actress Judy Garland.