While many audiences would have described 2015’s smash hit 50 Shades of Grey as thrilling, a studio exec promises that the sequel will be “more of a thriller.”
During an interview Wednesday with the Hollywood Reporter, Universal Pictures chairman Donna Langley said 50 Shades Darker will be “more of a thriller” than the first installment, and she also spoke about rumors of tension between author E.L. James, the studio and director Sam Taylor-Johnson. Neither Taylor-Johnson nor the screenwriter of the first film will be returning for the second; James has enlisted her husband, Niall Leonard, to write the script. Filming of both films will start in Vancouver next summer.
But Langley said, “For the record, the movie we ended up making is exactly the movie I wanted to make and that the studio wanted to make and that our director wanted to make.”
50 Shades Darker is set to be released on February 19, 2017.
Read next: Go Behind the Scenes of TIME’s ’50 Shades of Grey’ Photo Shoot
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