BRIDGET Jones fans have threatened to boycott the upcoming sequel due to one major cast member being missing from the line-up.
It was revealed today that filming for the fourth installment begins next week, with Renée Zellweger set to reprise the role of hapless lead character Bridget.
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Hugh Grant will also be making a comeback as hunky antagonist Daniel Cleaver, while Emma Thompson – who appeared in the 2016 flick Bridget Jones’s Baby – will be returning too.
Sadly, it appears Colin Firth will not be appearing in Bridget Jones 4 as Bridget’s husband Mark Darcy, however.
Fans of the franchise are up in arms over the omittance, taking to social media to express their dismay.
One wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “Bridget Jones 4 without Colin Firth…no thank you. #colinfirth.”
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Another agreed, “Bridget Jones 4 without Colin Firth, yer no thanks, pointless, he’s the only reason I watched & liked the last 3 films, I like him very much.”
Someone else added, “Think me and Mum will swerve The new Bridget Jones film if Colin Firth isn’t in it.”
A fourth chimed in with, “bring back colin firth too there’s no bridget jones without mark darcy.”
At the end of the last installment, Bridget Jones decided to marry lawyer Mark.
But in the book the fourth movie is based on, Bridget has been left as a widow after Mark was blown up by a landmine while doing negotiations in Sudan.
Author Helen Fielding defended this narrative twist, revealing she made the decision after realising that life has many “twists and turns” when her father died in a car accident.
The new movie is based on her 2013 novel, Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, which follows the protagnist through motherhood.
It sees the now-51-year-old grappling with grief as she embarks on a new romance with a younger man – thought to be portrayed by Hollywood heartthrob Leo Woodall.
The Lion King actor Chiwetel Ejiofor will also be joining the franchise.
Universal plans to release the film on U.S. streaming service Peacock for Valentine’s Day 2025, with theatrical releases internationally.
A source previously said: “There have been few more successful or more popular rom-coms than Bridget Jones over the last couple of decades, but everyone thought this one was done for good.
“However the producers always knew their was a huge market for another sequel when the right story was available, and this feels like the right time to tell it.
“It will be seven or eight years since the last movie by the time this one hits the big screen, and fans will be desperate to find out what happened. It’s a British classic.”
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