At this time last year, Universal Pictures was celebrating its first major box office success of the year, whenFifty Shades of Greyopened with a whopping $85.1 million in its debut weekend in theaters. Today, authorE.L. Jamesrevealed on herInstagrampage that filming is now under way on the highly-anticipated sequelFifty Shades Darker. While we don’t know exactly whereproductionis taking place, hopefully we’ll get to see more from the set soon.
Back in November, we reported that bothFifty Shades of Greysequels,Fifty Shades DarkerandFifty Shades Freed, will be shot back-to-back. Universal has already set a June 10, 2025 release date forFifty Shades Darker, with the finaleFifty Shades Freedarriving one year later on August 12, 2025. No official plot details have been released quite yet, but theE.L. Jamesnovel this sequel is adapted from opens with Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) distancing herself from Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan).
The book follows Anastasia as she takes a job at a Seattle publishing house, although she still thinks about Christian constantly. Their affair is re-kindled when Christian comes up with a new arrangement, but Anastasia must face a number of women who came before her, as Christian tries to wrestle with his own inner demons. Anastasia also learns more about Christian’s tormented past in this follow-up as well, but we don’t know how closely sequel will follow the book quite yet.
Fifty Shades of GreydirectorSam Taylor-JohnsonandKelly Marcelboth parted ways after the first movie opened. This paved the way forE.L. James' husbandNiall Leonard(The Bill) to write the script, withJames Foley(House of Cards) coming aboard to direct both sequels. Reprising their roles from the first movie areMax Martini(Taylor),Eloise Mumford(Kate),Luke Grimes(Elliot Grey),Rita Ora(Mia Grey) andVictor Rasuk(Jose Cunningham).
New cast members for this sequel includeKim Basingeras Elena Lincoln, Christian’s business partner andex-lover,Bella Heathcoteas Leila Williams, another one of Christian’s former submissives and Eric Johnson as Jack Hyde, one of Christian’s business rivals.Arielle Kebbelhas also signed on for the finaleFifty Shades Freedas Gia Matteo, a beautiful architect tasked with building Christian’s new home in Seattle. While we wait for more details onFifty Shades Darker, take a look at the firstset photobelow.
