Is Colin Firth in Bridget Jones 4? Here's What Happened to Mark Darcy [SPOILERS]
Director Michael Morris reveals how Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy handled the romantic icon in this chapter.
This story contains spoilers for Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy
Ah, Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) and Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). For 24 years, the former singletons-turned-soulmates have danced the awkward waltz of love across the span of four films — Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), Bridget Jones's Baby (2016), and now Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (2025) — giving romantics everywhere a couple to root for.
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In the latest chapter of Bridget's life story, their connection takes a different course in the wake of Mark Darcy's tragic demise. Of course, those who have shipped this pairing for two decades were shocked to discover in the trailer that Bridget is now a widow. That prompts the logical question: Is there no Mark Darcy in this Bridget Jones movie?
Take a deep breath. NBC Insider is here to hand you a tissue and explain everything you need to know about Darcy's (and Colin Firth's) place in this next chapter.
What happened to Mark Darcy in the Bridget Jones movies?
When we last saw Bridget and Darcy at the end of Bridget Jones's Baby, the seemingly perennially doomed couple had finally gotten themselves together, gotten married, and were raising their baby William in their happily-ever-after.
Now, knowing how Bridget Jones attracts chaos, if you believed that would truly be forever, well ... we'll give you a moment to process...
At the start of Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, Bridget informs us in her signature voice-over narrative that she's been a widow and single mother of two for four years. In his capacity as a renowned humanitarian rights lawyer, Darcy was overseas on business when he was the victim of a car accident that took his life. He was honored as a hero in his country, and mourned publicly.
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In the now, Bridget attends a memorial dinner every year given by Darcy's still judgmental family but celebrates his birthday privately with her children, Billy (Casper Knopf) and Mabel (Mila Jankovic). Darcy does remain a very present specter of love and support in Bridget's mind throughout the film. She imagines him both in the everyday moments (putting Billy and Mabel to bed, for example) and at important milestones in their children's lives, or when she's at a decision-making crossroads for herself.
Director Michael Morris explains Mark Darcy's final appearance
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy director Michael Morris sprinkles in several appearances by actor Colin Firth as Darcy throughout the run of the film. They're all bittersweet moments, but all illustrate how present the character remains in his family's lives.
First is when Bridget goes to attend the annual dinner to celebrate Darcy's life with his family; Mark meet's Bridget at the stoop and walks her to the door, only for him to disappear when the door opens. Next is the aforementioned bedtime routine, in which Bridget "sees" Mark as she's putting their kids to bed.
And finally, Darcy's presence — literally and figuratively — is deeply consequential to the Christmas show sequence in which Billy surprises Bridget by singing "I'd Do Anything," the song his father sang to him at night when he was too stressed to sleep.
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In shaping that scene, Morris told NBC Insider that he was inspired by Firth's stoic performance as Darcy in the first Bridget Jones movie.
"I was always really struck by, as an audience of the first film, how disciplined Colin was in that film," Morris explained. "When I watch that film, I see someone who barely smiles ... He has a very tight smile — at best — through the entire film I think until the soup scene where there’s one shot of him where he’s just grinning. And you go 'Oh my god. This is perfect!'"
Morris said as they were working out how to play the Christmas show, they decided to honor Firth's choices through young actor Casper Knopf's performance as Billy.
"If you watch our film, Billy very rarely smiles," Morris pointed out. "He doesn’t really smile fully in the entire film until that moment. He does something brave. He’s very afraid of what he’s about to do, but it’s a gift to his father and it’s a gift to his mother. And he does it, and then you’ll see that the very next shot at the end of it is just [Billy] grinning. And I think it’s Bridget seeing that, understanding that as she says in the next scene: 'I saw my son up there and for the first time in four years, I knew it was going to be OK.' And that is something that she cannot help but share with [Darcy]. And she conjures him for that last time."
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is available now, exclusively on Peacock as of February 13, 2025.
