Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson to return for new Bridget Jones film

Bridget Jones fans can rejoice as Renee Zellweger is set to reprise her role in the fourth instalment of the beloved franchise.

Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson will also be reprising their roles for Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy. They will be joined by 12 Years A Slave star Chiwetel Ejiofor and One Day actor Leo Woodall.

The romantic comedy sequel is slated for a US release on Valentine’s Day 2025, though a UK debut date remains unconfirmed.

Zellweger, a two-time Oscar winner, will once again portray the charmingly chaotic Bridget, while Grant will step back into the shoes of the roguish Daniel Cleaver. Thompson, who played Bridget’s exasperated obstetrician in the third film, is also set to return.

Helen Fielding, the British author behind the popular series, previously revealed that she wrote out Bridget’s love interest Mark Darcy, portrayed by Oscar winner Colin Firth, from the third book as she didn’t want Bridget to become “a smug married”.

In Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, Bridget is depicted as a widow in her 50s with two children, following Mark’s death some years earlier. However, it remains to be seen what plot the upcoming film will follow.

Firth reprised his role in the third film, Bridget Jones’s Baby, which saw his character vying with billionaire US love guru Jack Qwant, played by Patrick Dempsey, for Bridget’s affections after she falls pregnant.

The 2016 sequel, which arrived 12 years after American actress Zellweger flawlessly adopted an English accent to play the loveable singleton in Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason, was a hit.

The first adaptation, Bridget Jones’s Diary, saw Zellweger portray a 30-something chardonnay-loving singleton and was released in 2001 to widespread praise.

Zellweger bagged her second Academy Award in 2020 for her leading role as renowned singer and actress Judy Garland, following her initial win in 2004 for her supporting role as Ruby Thewes in Cold Mountain.

The film, directed by Michael Morris, is a Universal Pictures original with co-financing from Miramax.