‘Fifty Shades Darker’ Delay: Author E.L. James Hints Production Is Finally Underway

Despite all of the speculation and rumors of delay, it now appears as though production for Fifty Shades Darker may have already started. According to a recent Twitter post by author E.L. James, work has already begun on the sequel to the box office success Fifty Shades of Grey.

“Fun times… @jamesfoleyjr @noghar dana_brunetti @michaelde_luca,” James wrote on her social media account.

James also included a link to an image on her Instagram account that featured her and other producers sitting around a table and working on the upcoming movie. The photo features most of the major contributors to the movie, including James, screenwriter Niall Leonard, producer Dana Brunetti, and James Foley.

Additionally, James also posted an image of the outside of Michael De Luca’s office at NBC Universal Comcast. She tagged the image with “#Working.” De Luca is one of the producers who is working on the film, which adds more evidence to the notion that work has already started on the movie.

The recent social media activity by the best-selling author follows what have been months filled with rumors that the movie’s production has been delayed. The reasons for the delay were quite numerous, with the major setback coming after the director of the first film in the hit franchise, Sam Taylor-Johnson, decided to call it quits over issues involving James’ involvement in the movie.

However, producers have since hired a new director in James Foley, who is known for his work on the hit Netflix series House of Cards. In regards to having a brand new director for the sequel, even Dakota Johnson admitted that she was unsure how things would unfold.

“There was a moment of being afraid because I didn’t know what it was going to be like,” Johnson related to Empire in a recent interview. “I had an experience with Sam and then it all went away.”

Despite her initial doubts, Johnson, who is set to reprise her role as Anastasia Steele in the erotic sequel, stated that she is thrilled to be given the chance to work with Foley.

“I think James is a talented filmmaker,” she stated in the interview. “How often do you get to reconvene with the same people and have a different spin?”

At the same time, other rumors of delays surfaced around the issue of casting for the new film. In fact, the sequel is set to introduce a number of new characters, including main antagonist Jack Hyde. However, producers have yet to cast any of the new parts and aren’t even close to doing so.

In fact, Brunetti recently told E! Online that producers are “nowhere near casting… We haven’t gotten into anything like that.”

Although the film will see the return of Johnson and Jamie Dornan (Christian Grey) for the lead parts, producers will definitely need to get a move on casting for the other parts if they want to stay on schedule. Hopefully, this will happen soon and we will all learn which other stars will be added to the film’s credits.

Meanwhile, although James’ recent social media posts indicate that they are hard at work ironing out the details concerning the upcoming movie, filming is not expected to begin for a few months now. That being said, it is good to see that things are progressing, which might indicate that filming will actually start on time and will not be delayed any further.

Fifty Shades Darker is set to premiere in theaters on February 10, 2017, while the third film in the franchise, Fifty Shades Freed, will be released on February 9, 2018.

Tell us! With all of the production delays, do you think that Fifty Shades Darker will still be released on time? Sound off in the comments below.

[Image via Universal Pictures]