--- title: Who Will Be the Next Fifty Shades Director? description: Speculation heats up over who will replace Sam Taylor Johnson canonical: https://time.com/4006068/next-fifty-shades-director/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-21T11:41:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T10:20:45.730Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: House of Cards Director in Line to Direct Next Fifty Shades film og:description: Speculation heats up over who will replace Sam Taylor Johnson og:url: https://time.com/4006068/next-fifty-shades-director/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7d5f1af5a2637852/6987852406f2c18da433497a/1180627_full.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Dakota Johnson (L) and Jamie Dornan (R) in "Fifty Shades of Grey." og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: House of Cards Director in Line to Direct Next Fifty Shades film twitter:description: Speculation heats up over who will replace Sam Taylor Johnson twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7d5f1af5a2637852/6987852406f2c18da433497a/1180627_full.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _House of Cards_ Director in Line to Direct Next _Fifty Shades_ film by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Aug 21, 2015 11:41 AM UTC  Dakota Johnson, left, and Jamie Dornan in Fifty Shades of Grey Dakota Johnson, left, and Jamie Dornan in Fifty Shades of GreyFocus Pictures by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Aug 21, 2015 11:41 AM UTC Though Sam Taylor-Johnson led _Fifty Shades of Grey_ to more than half a billion dollars at the global box office, she will not be back to direct the second and third installments in the franchise. The director made the formal announcement in March, just a month after the movie opened in theaters, with insiders speculating the decision had to do with tension over creative differences with the books’ author, E.L. James. So who will take the helm for movie #2, _Fifty Shades Darker?_ [According to Deadline](http://deadline.com/2015/08/james-foley-fifty-shades-of-grey-sequels-fifty-shades-darker-fifty-shades-freed-universal-1201500407/), James Foley is the frontrunner to get the job. Though negotiations have not yet begun, he is apparently favored by Universal insiders to take on _Darker_, and maybe even the third installment, _Fifty Shades Freed_. Foley is known for directing features like _Glengarry Glen Ross_ and _Fear_, and has more recently directed a dozen episodes of _House of Cards_. Should he get the directing gig for _Darker,_ he can expect to see his work in theaters on Feb. 10, 2017; _Freed’_s release has been set for Feb. 9, 2018. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4006068/next-fifty-shades-director/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4006068/next-fifty-shades-director/"},"headline":"House of Cards Director in Line to Direct Next Fifty Shades film","datePublished":"2015-08-21T11:41:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T10:20:45.730Z","description":"Speculation heats up over who will replace Sam Taylor Johnson","url":"https://time.com/4006068/next-fifty-shades-director/","keywords":["movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7d5f1af5a2637852/6987852406f2c18da433497a/1180627_full.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7d5f1af5a2637852/6987852406f2c18da433497a/1180627_full.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Dakota Johnson (L) and Jamie Dornan (R) in \"Fifty Shades of Grey.\"","caption":"Dakota Johnson (L) and Jamie Dornan (R) in \"Fifty Shades of Grey.\"","creditText":"Focus Pictures","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4006068/next-fifty-shades-director/","name":"House of Cards Director in Line to Direct Next Fifty Shades film"}}]}] ```