'Fifty Shades of Grey' Sequel News: Director Sam Taylor-Johnson Steps Away from Franchise

Even after the huge success the first Fifty Shades of Grey film, director Sam Taylor-Johnson officially announced that she would not return to direct Fifty Shades Darker.

"Directing Fifty Shades of Grey has been an intense and incredible journey for which I am hugely grateful," Johnson said in a statement exclusively for Deadline, "I have Universal to thank for that. I forged close and lasting relationships with the cast, producers and crew and most especially, with Dakota and Jamie. While I will not be returning to direct the sequels, I wish nothing but success to whosoever takes on the exciting challenges of films two and three."

This news doesn't come as a shock to most as the director had hinted towards quitting in earlier interviews. According to People she and author E.L. James had many fights about this film's content on and off the set. James wants to write the screenplay for the second film so as to keep to the book's true content.

"We definitely fought, but they were creative fights and we would resolve them," said Johnson in an interview with Porter magazine earlier this year. "We would have proper on-set barneys, and I'm not confrontational, but it was about finding a way between the two of us, satisfying her vision of what she'd written as well as my need to visualize this person on screen."

The screen adaption of Fifty Shades of Grey was an instant success, raking in over $550 million at the worldwide box office during this year's Valentine's Day weekend. However, it has been steadily decreasing in sales since its release.

On a side note, the two stars, Jamie Dornan (Christian Grey) and Dakota Johnson (Anastasia Steele) even want a huge salary raise, according to many reports last month.