Universal has announced the release dates for Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed. Darker comes out on February 10, 2017, while Freed follows on February 9, 2018. The studio is banking again on the Valentine’s Day week timing after the first film made US$568.8 million in worldwide box office sales.
Fifty Shades Darker has also found a scriptwriter, following the departure of the original writer Kelly Marcel from the franchise. E.L. James, the author of Fifty Shades, has hired her husband, Niall Leonard, to write the script for the next film. Don’t think this is a case of nepotism though – Leonard is an accomplished TV screenwriter and author. He contributed to the first Fifty Shades of Grey script, without being credited. The film is still looking for a director after Sam Taylor-Johnson said she will not return for the sequels.
The first promotional still for Fifty Shades Darker has also been released featuring a masked Christian Grey.
