Everything You Need To Know About 'Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy'
Almost a decade on since we last saw our chaotically lovable heroine in all of her bedraggled glory, Bridget Jones is set to make a return to our screens once again.
The fourth film in the Bridget Jones' Diary franchise, which is believed to have started filming in London on May 9 2024, will be called Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy and is based on the 2013 book of the same title by Helen Fielding.
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Per the Daily Mail, pre-production was already ‘well under way’ as of April 2024. ‘Filming is being mapped out already and all of the pre-production is in place,' a source told the publication. ‘There was some uncertainty about whether it would get off the ground, but the movie is coming. Renée is excited about bringing Bridget back. She adores the character so much. Bridget Jones fever is expected to sweep across London this spring.’ By August 2024, production on the film had wrapped and now it's a matter of weeks until it finally lands in cinemas.
Excited is an understatement. This is everything we know about our favourite love-sick Londoner's return to the fold.
What will the plot of Bridget Jones' Diary 4 be?
In a May 2024 interview with Entertainment Tonight, Hugh Grant (who plays Bridget's former fling, Daniel Cleaver) asserted that the script for Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy is the 'best one yet.'
'I think the script for the fourth "Bridget" is the best one of the four,' the actor said, adding that it's based on Fielding's book and centres on how to raise two children alone. 'In fact, it's one of the best scripts I've read for a long time. It's very sad as well as very funny.'
When the news of the fourth film was revealed, a source close to production confirmed that it was also set to have some sort of ‘devastating twist’, which will come as no great surprise given the sucker punch of a shock that came in the third film.
In the third installment of the beloved film series – after Bridget Jones’ Diary in 2001 and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason in 2004 – we saw the 32-year-old British singleton finally find her happy ending. In Bridget Jones' Baby, Jones married Mark Darcy (played by Colin Firth) while Jones’ other love interest, Daniel Cleaver died in a plane crash, but the story wasn't based on any of Helen Fielding's books.
When asked about a fourth movie installment two years ago, Fielding, the author of Bridget Jones' Diary, revealed she was working on an adaptation of her 2013 novel Mad About the Boy, which takes place four years after Darcy dies too and sees Jones navigate the difficulties of being a single parent and returning to the dating pool as a fifty-something-year-old.
She told Radio Times that the fact that every one of her films that got made was a ‘miracle’.
‘I think it’s really difficult to make films and to make them happen and to make them good and we want it to be really good. But I really hope so. I’d love to see it on the screen,’ she added.
The author has also said that she wrote Darcy out of the book series because she she didn't want Bridget to become 'a smug married', a fate the character of Jones had previously been intent on avoiding.
In keeping with the plot of Fielding's novel, the book focuses on Bridget's pivot to dating as a widow and, in true Bridget fashion, finds herself entangled in a je ne sais quoi with a dashing 29-year-old park warden, Roxster, who is played by The White Lotus' Leo Woodall.
'Bridget is going to be a real cougar in the new film and she'll be seen starting a relationship with a much younger character played by Leo,' a source told The Sun in April 2024. 'Bridget is a single mum trying to navigate a new world of social media and dating apps after Mark's death, so she's definitely going to end up in a pickle. Hugh Grant is back as Daniel Cleaver, so there will be a love triangle between Bridget's older flame and this much younger new man.'
In pictures snapped of the cast's first few days of filming in May 2024, Zellweger was seen filming alongside two young people, who it is understood will be playing her children in the upcoming film. A matter of days later, she was spotted filming in the capital once again with Woodall, who told ELLE UK that his highlight of filming Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy was 'All the tree climbing and Renée [Zellweger] hanging off the tree. We had two days on the Heath and it was just fun. I got to climb trees for half a day.'
Despite how it may seem though, as Fielding clarified in a February 2025 op-ed, the upcoming film is about more than Bridget just falling in love again. 'Mad About The Boy is not, at heart, about finding a man. (Although why shouldn’t a story stop at a happy moment? We all need a bit of cheer. Since the last movie everybody has lived through major black notes, seeing the world fall apart in the pandemic, living in a dangerous, divisive time on a fragile planet. People are struggling.) This movie was written about resilience and community: the emotional honesty to share, laugh, cry and support each other when stuff goes wrong, which helps everyone through,' she shared.
Who will make up the cast of Bridget Jones 4?
Both Zellweger and Grant will reprise their roles of Jones and Cleaver, and, while his role will be smaller than in the first three films, Firth will also return as Darcy. Woodall, who is currently in a relationship with his The White Lotus co-star Meghann Fahy, will also star in Mad About The Boy.
Another new cast member we can't wait to see on screen is 12 Years A Slave star Chiwetel Ejiofor, who plays her son Billy's science teacher, Mr Wallker, who quickly becomes another love interest. A (likely triumphant) return comes in the form of Emma Thompson, who memorably starred in the third film as despairing obstetrician Dr. Rawlings. Isla Fisher, Gemma Jones and Jim Broadbent also star in the film.
When will Bridget Jones 4 be released?
While the SAG-AFTRA strikes put a halt to production, in August 2024, the film's production company Working Title shared a photo on X from the set of the film and announced that filming had finally wrapped on the project. 'That's a wrap. See you on Valentine’s Day,' the accompanying caption read.
That's a wrap. See you on Valentine’s Day. pic.twitter.com/dI8QZwPoRC
— Working Title (@Working_Title) August 8, 2024
The Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy is set for UK release on February 13 2025.
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