Rowan Atkinson will reprise his role as the titular bumbling Bond parody in Johnny English 4 – and filming is imminent.
While Rowan Atkinson will forever be synonymous with the slapstick shenanigans of Mr Bean, or the guile of Blackadder, he has now racked up over two decades playing Johnny English over three films to date.
Johnny English, directed by Peter Howitt and written by James Bond screenwriting ream Neal Purvis and Robert Wade with William Davies, saw Atkinson reprise the bumbling spy character he first played in a series of adverts for Barclaycard in the 1990s.
He starred opposite a villainous John Malkovich as Pascal Sauvage. Despite his incompetence, he wins the day with the help from Ben Milller’s Bough, Natalie Imbruglia’s sultry spy Lorna Campbell and a mixup involving a DVD of English lipsyncing to ABBA’s Does Your Mother Know.
The sequel, Johnny English Reborn, directed by Oliver Parker and written by Hamish McColl, arrived in 2011, this time with Daniel Kaluuya as eager young assistant Tucker, Rosamund Pike as love interest Kate, Dominic West as villain Simon Ambrose and Gillian Anderson as Head of MI7 Pegasus. It saw English drafted in to prevent an assassination plot.
The third film, Johnny English Strikes Again, directed by Hamish McColl and written by William Davies, was released in 2018, with yet another change in supporting cast, this time with Olga Kurylenko, Jake Lacy, Emma Thompson and the return of Miller. The plot saw Engoush investigate a series of cyber attacks.
Acording to Screen Daily, Johnny English 4 is set to go into production in Malta this summer, produced by Working Title. While it has been confirmed that Atkinson will reprise the title role, no details about writer, director or other cast have been revealed, we’ll keep you updated as we hear more.
In other Atkinson news, a fourth series of Mr Bean: The Animated Series is in the works at ITV.
