Kelly Marcel

One of the writers of the original film has signed on to work on ‘Venom 2’

After some highly-publicized and unfortunate drama surrounding Fifty Shades of Grey, screenwriter Kelly Marcel opted out of returning to pen the sequel — that’s bad news for Fifty Shades fans, as Marcel’s script vastly improved upon the source material, but good news for Marcel fans, as the writer is now freed up to pursue non-Fifty Shades projects (it’s for the best), like Disney’s live-action Cruella de Vil movie.

And so it begins. We’ve heard the stories of issues on set between Fifty Shades of Grey director Sam Taylor-Johnson and author E.L. James, making it seem unlikely that Taylor-Johnson would return to direct the sequel. Universal has now made it official: Fifty Shades Darker is in the market for a new director, as Taylor-Johnson has declined to return.