Swifties, if you thought the rollercoaster that was Taylor Swift’s Midnights album release was over, think again: The singer-songwriter dropped another music video on Oct. 25, this time for “Bejeweled.” And, just like the “Anti-Hero” music video contained references toward Swift’s past eras and her famous feuds, “Bejeweled” does the same — though there’s one specific theory that has Swifties talking. That’s right: The “Bejeweled” music video Easter eggs may point to Speak Now being the next album to get the Taylor’s Version treatment.
If you’re skeptical, look no further. I’ve rounded up all the hints that we may be getting Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) sometime soon.
- The “Enchanted” instrumental in the beginning
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Listen closely, and you can hear the instrumental to “Enchanted,” one of Speak Now’s songs, playing in the beginning of the video. Perhaps it’s just to tie in with the video’s general fairytale, Cinderella theme, but could we even be hearing our first taste of “Enchanted (Taylor’s Version)” without even knowing it? Perhaps…
- “Speak Not”
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Okay, this one might be a stretch, considering the intro dialogue contains a lot of references to past Taylor songs, but hear me out. When Swift’s character, a Cinderella-type, dares to speak back to her stepmother and stepsisters (played by Laura Dern and the Haim sisters, respectively) about their verbal abuse, one of the responses hurled back at her by the stepmother is, “Speak not.”
When you stack this up against the fact that Swift’s character has been “exiled” (a clear Folklore reference) or that her stepsisters also call her a “snake” (which is more of a Reputation-era title), it doesn’t seem like much — but combined with the other hints in the video, I’m still counting it as significant.
- The pocket watch
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Swift magically receives a pocket watch that counts down to the end of her exile during the first verse of the song. The countdown begins at three — could this point to Speak Now being her third album? What’s more is the design of the pocket watch: The cover looks like a seashell, which may be paying homage to the seashell lights on the Speak Now World Tour (skip down to No. 10 to see what I mean).
- Swift presses three in the elevator
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Buckle up, because this elevator provides more than one Easter egg just on its own. When Swift gets into the elevator, you might notice that there are 13 different floor buttons — her favorite number, yes, but it also could correspond to the number of albums Swift has released… plus one. That’s right, Swift has put out 10 studio albums, plus two re-recordings. If you give each album a number in chronological order, Speak Now would be “three” as her third album. And what button does Swift press to take her up? You can probably connect the dots from here.
- The purple elevator buttons
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In case you thought I was done talking about this elevator, hang on for another second, because we have to talk about the purple. Speak Now’s album cover featured Swift in a big, flowy purple dress the made purple synonymous with the Speak Now era as whole. And not only is button three in the elevator colored that same shade of purple, but so is button 13, aka the mystery new upcoming album that Swift has yet to announce.
Don’t believe that this points to Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)? Check out buttons two and 10, which are the same shade of gold to match up with Fearless and Fearless (Taylor’s Version)’s album covers. Or buttons four and 11 which are both a bright red to signify — you guessed it — Red and Red (Taylor’s Version). This is probably the clearest hint in the entire video, since none of the other album buttons are even close to purple.
- The necklace
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Fans are a bit less sure of this particular clue, but then again, nothing Miss Swift does is unintentional when it comes to her music videos. When Swift exits the elevator to walk down a bejeweled walkway, she has on a new necklace. Like the elevator buttons, the necklace’s gem’s colors may correspond to past releases of hers. If that’s the case, it’s a pretty big deal that the purple gem (aka Speak Now) is placed front and center, pointing to it being the next re-recording. But even if you’re skeptical about that, one Swiftie argued that the fact that the necklace has a total of 19 gems also points to Speak Now, since Swift was 19 when she wrote it.
- Her hairstyle matching the “Mean” music video
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Swift sports a few different looks in “Bejeweled,” but this one may be the clearest connection to a past era: At one point, her hair is styled with short waves reminiscent of a Hollywood starlet. You know what it’s also reminiscent of? Swift’s music video for “Mean,” where she not only had an extremely similar hairstyle, but was also wearing red lipstick, just like she is for this look in “Bejeweled.” “Mean” is, of course, a track off of Speak Now, only adding to the evidence of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).
- “But I miss sparkling” and her earrings
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At around 3:27 in the video, Swift sings, “But I miss sparkling” and her earring quite literally sparkles. This could be more than just a fun literal interpretation of the lyrics, however. Swift’s earring, if you look closely, has a gold backing and a red jewel stud, with a sparkling purple jewel dangling from it. And what do we know about gold and red? Oh, yeah — they tie in to Fearless and Red, aka the first two albums to receive the Taylor’s Version treatment. Could this indicate that Speak Now will soon be joining an exclusive trilogy with these two albums? Not to mention, “sparkling” in this context could be yet another callback to the Speak Now track “Enchanted,” which contains the line, “This night is sparkling.”
- The clock
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At the beginning of the final chorus, Swift is sitting on the pointer hands of a clock that lowers down onto a stage. The clock’s pointer hands are, of course, set to three o’clock. You know what this means by now. The purple lighting for this whole bit may be coincidental, but it also might just be yet another Speak Now reference.
- The stage design matching the Speak Now World Tour
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More than one Swiftie has pointed out that the stage for this final chorus is designed pretty intentionally. That is, it looks just like the stage design Swift had for the Speak Now World Tour. From the red curtains to the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it seashell lights at the front of the stage, Swift is clearly paying homage to the Speak Now world tour.
- The “S” and “N” pins in her hair
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When Swift receives a proposal from Prince Jack (played by Swift’s long-time collaborator, Jack Antonoff) at the end of the video, she takes a moment to wink at the camera. During that closeup, you may notice two pins in Swift’s elaborate hairdo: an “S” and “N.” Could this stand for Speak Now? It may be a red herring — after all, one of the new Midnights tracks is called “Sweet Nothing,” which has the same initials, but stacked up against the other evidence in the video, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was yet another hint for Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).
- The balcony
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Swift stands on a balcony in her castle at the end of the video, overlooking her kingdom. Why is this worth noting? Well, because the Speak Now World Tour also featured a balcony — one that looks suspiciously similar, according to a fan tweet.
- The “Long Live” instrumental at the end
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Neatly bookending the video, we have “Enchanted” at the beginning, and “Long Live,” another Speak Now track, playing at the end. One is a coincidence, two is suspicious. “Long Live” also matches up nicely with the themes of the “Bejeweled” video, with its references to royalty and kingdoms. Of course, the lyric that most Swifts may be remembering now is “I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you,” but hold on — I’ll get to that in just a second.
- The dragons
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As I just said, “Long Live,” the song playing at the end of the video, references fighting dragons. So it only makes sense that we would see a few on screen before the video ends. And how many dragons are there? That’s right — three. This could be another Easter egg hinting at Swift’s third album, or it could simply be a reference to her three cats, as this Swiftie wondered. Your guess is as good as mine.
- The bell
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As the camera zooms out to capture Swift’s whole castle, we get a brief glimpse of a giant ringing bell in one tower. It seems like the Speak Now World Tour was a huge inspiration bank for the Easter eggs in this video, because as some Swifts might remember, a bell also featured on the tour: Swift used one a prop during the song “Haunted.” The “Haunted” bell had the number XIII (13 in Roman numerals) on it, and while it’s just a little too zoomed-out to tell if the “Bejeweled” bell is the same, we do know that Swift’s next release will be number 13, so it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if it did have XIII engraved on it.
- The release date
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And finally, the biggest clue for Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) doesn’t have anything to do with the video’s content at all — instead, Swifties’ eyebrows are raising at the date Swift chose to drop this music video. The “Bejeweled” video premiered at midnight on Oct. 25, exactly twelve years after the Speak Now album was released on Oct. 25, 2010. Coincidence? I think not.