'Fifty Shades' director Sam Taylor-Johnson might not be back for the sequels

Even though Fifty Shades of Grey had an incredibly successful opening and made over $90 million this weekend, director Sam Taylor-Johnson fought with the book’s author E.L. James so much that she might not be coming back.

She has definitely put James on blast recently, telling The Hollywood Reporter that they fought on set and working with James was “frustrating“:

EL James was very hands-on with the film. Is that an experience you’d recommend to other filmmakers?
It’s difficult. When you have an author and an auteur, it’s a difficult and challenging relationship. I’m not saying that at times it wasn’t helpful, but there were times when it was really, really frustrating.

This movie gave Taylor-Johnson the biggest weekend opening in history for a female director, but her potential exit might give the franchise a chance to pull a Twilight and replace her with male directors for the next two movies.

Danielle Henderson is a lapsed academic, heavy metal karaoke machine, and culture editor at Fusion. She enjoys thinking about how race, gender, and sexuality shape our cultural narratives, but not in a boring way.