Colin Firth has expressed interest in potentially revisiting Bridget Jones’ Diary, moving the story in a new – and darker – direction.

Who doesn’t love the quirky British comedy Bridget Jones’ Diary (2001), starring Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth, which tells the unlikely love story of Bridget Jones and Mark Darcy?

People are generally less enthused about the 2004 follow-up, Bridget Jones: On the Edge of Reason, which negated Bridget and Mark’s happy ending by breaking them up, sending Bridget to a Thailand prison and back into the arms of Daniel Cleaver… only to end up as the future Mrs. Darcy after all, putting the fairytale finish back on track.

At the time, it seemed like the franchise would end there. But now, Colin Firth has hinted that the cast might be ready to reprise their roles.

“It would have to have somewhere to go,” Firth tells The Independent. “Back at the time, I said that a third one should only happen if we were telling a story about having moved into a different generation when we were all beginning to deteriorate a little bit.” And 10 years on, Firth believes they could now tell that story.

The movies are only very loosely based on the Helen Fielding novels (the second bears almost no resemblance), but a third Bridget Jones movie would likely follow the rough format of Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, which was released in 2013.

As much as we love Fielding’s quirky writing, however, we really hope that a potential third film makes up a new plot for Bridget and her suitors. Because Mad About the Boy is pretty dark.

Spoiler alert for Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy!

In Bridget’s third adventure, she is left the widowed mother of two, Darcy having tragically died while on an assignment in Darfur. Having Mark die in the movie seems almost impossibly sad for a comedy franchise, especially considering the character’s popularity.

However, it is possible that a movie might explore the possibility which Fielding herself hinted at: that Darcy possibly, for some bizarre reason, faked his own death.

“The thing is that Bridget had to be single, and Mark would never have left her because he’s too much of a gentleman,” Fielding explains, as quoted by the Daily Mail.

If Renée Zellweger agreed to return, it might be fun to explore Bridget’s life as a single, middle-aged mother who explores a romance with a much younger man – if Darcy returns and returns our happy ending to us, that is.