The comic saga "Bridget Jones" will get a fourth installment, expected for next year

Bridget Jones is back. Indeed, eight years after "Bridget Jones's Baby," the third installment of the comic saga, Renée Zellweger has just signed on to reprise her role in a fourth film of the saga. According to Deadline, which reports the information, this feature film titled "Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy" will be released on the American platform Peacock for Valentine's Day 2025, and in cinemas worldwide.

This new sequel will be adapted from the book of the same title by the novelist Helen Fielding, author of the original literary saga.

Some details have emerged regarding the cast and plot: it seems that Hugh Grant, who played the Machiavellian heartthrob Daniel Cleaver in the first two films before withdrawing for the third, will make his grand return. Actress Emma Thompson, who played Bridget Jones's dry-witted obstetrician in the last film, will also be returning. The film will be directed by Michael Morris.

However, English-language media do not mention the return of Mark Darcy, Bridget Jones's partner played by Colin Firth. According to the Guardian, his character will have been killed by a landmine in Sudan

This absence will be at the heart of the plot of "Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy," according to the British newspaper. The film will therefore pick up four years after the events of the previous one, and will follow a fifty-something Bridget Jones, widowed and mother of two young children.

However, two new actors will join the cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor ("Twelve Years a Slave") and young Leo Woodall (seen in "The White Lotus" and "One Day"). According to the Guardian, the latter will play a young thirty-something with whom Bridget Jones begins a relationship.

Released in 2001, "Bridget Jones's Diary" followed the romantic mishaps of a clumsy thirty-something. This first film earned Renée Zellweger her first Oscar nomination and was followed by a second installment, "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason," two years later. The third film, "Bridget Jones's Baby," was released in 2016. Apparently a successful franchise as the saga has generated a total of $760 million in worldwide revenue, enough to want to make a fourth installment.