Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Colin Firth’s character, Mark Darcy, is dead in the new Bridget Jones movie, aka Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. This isn’t a spoiler, to be clear. In the first five minutes of the new movie—which will begin streaming on Peacock tomorrow, February 13—Renée Zellweger, via her signature voiceover, informs the audiences that she is four years a widow. She’s now raising her children with Mark—9-year-old Billy and 4-year-old Mabel—all on her own.
Colin Firth does briefly appear in the new Bridget Jones movie, but only in the form of a memory when Bridget is missing her late husband. Instead, Bridget spends time with her former lover and now platonic friend, Daniel (Hugh Grant), and two new potential love interests played by Leo Woodall and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
The death of Mr. Darcy may come as a shock to fans of the franchise, which is usually a light-hearted romp that ends with Mark and Bridget together forever. After all, that’s what happened in 2001’s Bridget Jones’s Diary, 2004′s Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, and 2016’s Bridget Jones’s Baby. But, in fact, Mr. Darcy dies in the book that the film is based on, written by Helen Fielding, who also co-wrote the movie screenplay with Dan Mazer and Abi Morgan. It’s sad, to be sure, but how else were they going to get Bridget single again? They’ve already broken up too many times!
So how, exactly, does Colin Firth’s Mark Darcy die in the new Bridget Jones movie?
How does Colin Firth’s character Mr. Darcy die in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy?
Colin Firth’s character, Mark Darcy, died in an explosion while on a humanitarian mission in Sudan. You don’t see this happen on screen, but Bridget tells us in her voiceover that she’s been widowed for four years, after Mr. Darcy was “killed” on a humanitarian mission. Later, we see a newspaper clipping that clarifies he was killed in an explosion in a war-torn region. There has been a civil war raging in Sudan since April 2003, which has resulted in a dire humanitarian crisis of starvation, malnutrition, and violence.
While it’s not clear exactly why Mr. Darcy embarked on this dangerous humanitarian mission, we do know that he was a lawyer who would often work with oppressed peoples, and so presumably it had something to do with his job.
Unlike in Bridget Jones Baby—which began with a funeral for Hugh Grant’s character, Daniel Cleaver, and ended with the revelation that Daniel was, in fact, still alive—Colin Firth does not magically come back to life at the end of Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. Instead, Bridget gets her happily ever after with a new man. For now, at least. RIP Mr. Darcy. No one wore a reindeer sweater like you did.
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