Fifty Shades of Grey: Sam Taylor-Johnson walks away from sequels

Fifty Shades of Grey director Sam Taylor-Johnson will not direct the movie’s planned two sequels.

Sam Taylor-Johnson said she was “hugely grateful” to have been chosen to adapt E.L. James’s 2011 best-seller.

She then wished “nothing but success to whosoever takes on the exciting challenges of films two and three”.

Fifty Shades or Grey, about a businessman who begins an affair with a young student, has made almost $560 million at the worldwide box office.

E.L. James’s trilogy of Fifty Shades books have reportedly sold more than 100 million copies worldwide and been translated into more than 50 languages.

Relations between Sam Taylor-Johnson and the author were said to be strained during its production, prompting speculation the artist-turned-director would not return to continue or complete the film trilogy.

“We battled all the way through,” Sam Taylor-Johnson told Vanity Fair magazine.

“She’d say the same. There were tough times and revelatory times. There were sparring contests. It was definitely not an easy process.”

Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson are expected to return as Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele in the next film, scheduled for release in 2017.