Charlie Hunnam has officially left the feature film production of Fifty Shades of Grey. Hunnam, the star of Pacific Rim and FX’s Sons of Anarchy, had been cast as the leading man of the high-profile film adaptation earlier this year, but he has chosen to leave the project in favor of other projects.
Universal Pictures and Focus Features issued a joint press release regarding Hunnam’s departure earlier today. “The filmmakers of Fifty Shades of Grey and Charlie Hunnam have agreed to find another male lead given Hunnam’s immersive TV schedule which is not allowing him time to adequately prepare for the role of Christian Grey.”
It seems that the production’s biggest difficulty has been finding the right leading man. Hunnam had been cast in the role only last month after a long search, and now the producers will have to be finding a replacement. Two prominent names that have been mentioned have been White Collar‘s Matt Bomer and The Vampire Diaries‘ Ian Somerhalder.
I’m actually glad to hear that Hunnam decided not to portray Christian Grey, and that’s not accounting my distaste from the source material. A role this big and popular could very well dominate his career, the same way that playing Edward Cullen has defined Robert Pattinson’s. Hunnam’s a very good actor, but I don’t want to see him get typecast in something like Christian Grey. It pleases me to hear that he’s choosing to focus on Sons of Anarchy instead.
What do you think about this news? How do you feel about Hunnam leaving the project? Are you happy that he won’t be doing high-budget pornography? Why don’t you just tell us what you think in the comments below?
Source: People
