At midnight on Oct. 25, Swifties got quite the surprise of a music video for the song “Bejeweled” from Taylor Swift’s new album Midnights. Midnights being Swift’s tenth studio album, fans knew to watch carefully for easter eggs throughout the almost six-minute video directed and written by Swift herself. With no real surprise, the video was filled with plenty of easter eggs for fans to dissect.
The video features a star-studded cast, with a new retelling of the classic story of Cinderella. Swift plays House Wrench Taylor (Cinderella), while the Haim sisters, and Laura Dern play her evil stepsisters and evil stepmother, respectively. There were also numerous other noteworthy cameos like Jack Antonoff, Dita Von Teese, Zoë Kravitz, and Pat McGrath. Who all helped to create the perfect atmosphere for the easter eggs to be subtly slipped in.
Within the first 15 seconds of the video, the first easter egg is already placed, the evil stepfamily enters the room and a string instrumental version of “Enchanted” plays from Swift’s 2010 album, Speak Now. This comes after fans have been speculating and begging for Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) for months. Followed by remarks from Dern using Swift’s own lyrical references, such as “exiled,” a reference to the Evermore track, and she then uses another possible nod to Speak Now with “speak not.” Danielle Haim is also heard calling Swift a “snake,” which is a nod to her Reputation era. As the scene ends, a little non-Swift easter egg is thrown in when the Haim sisters sing their own original “song” from TikTok about getting hungover.
After the family exits, a clock appears from thin air to Swift, which reads, “exile ends,” with a countdown ending on 2, being another Evermore reference. While other fans speculated that it might have something more to do with her gaining the ability to legally re-record another album (Reputation) in about two weeks, which would be the final album she still is waiting for the rights to re-record. Due to the long legal battle for her masters with Big Machine Records. Swift is then seen entering an elevator where there are 13 color-coded buttons, each color coordinating with each of her albums’ eras in their release order. Swift presses the purple number 3, which correlates with Speak Now. Making fans investigate further and notice there is also a number 13 that is purple again signaling a possible Speak Now re-record because, with the re-records, Swift would still technically only have 12 albums as of right now. She also has the album-coordinated colors on a “bejeweled” necklace again later in the video.
Toward the end of the video, Swift wins the Prince’s talent competition in which she is crowned “Miss Bejeweled,” which is another possible throwback to her music video for “You Belong With Me,” in which she wore a shirt that said “Junior Jewels,” one of a few possible outfit-led references. She was seen earlier in the video wearing a black cloak when she was leaving the cabin which reminded many of the outfits she wore in her “Willow” music video, while others said that it looked similar to the one from “…Ready for it?” As well as many referencing the white sparkly set she wears with Dita Von Teese, which could symbolize her moving from her Folklore/Evermore era back to the pop world with Midnights or even a subtle 1989 reference. Following this was Swift sitting on a clock set to 3:00, which is another plausible hint toward Speak Now. Though it was also argued it could just be about the 3 AM version of the Midnights album. As the video ends after winning the competition, Swift poses for her royal portrait in which “S” and “N” clips are seen in her hair, basically screaming Speak Now is on its way.
Finally, the video concludes with the instrumental version of “Long Live” playing in the background as three dragons are seen outside the castle. These references again, point to Speak Now, as referenced in the track “Long Live” whose lyrics contain “I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you.” While these could all have been very questionable coincidences the video came out at midnight on Oct. 25 which is no coincidence. Speak Now was originally released on Oct. 25, 2010, making the 12th anniversary a perfect time to announce a re-record.