Charlie Hunnam reflected on how different things could’ve been if he’d starred in the Fifty Shades franchise.
Today, we know Jamie Dornan as Christian Grey. However, the Northern Irish actor wasn’t the first pick to star as the fictional billionaire and S&M enthusiast in the Fifty Shades film adaption.
However, a little over a month after the casting announcement made headlines, the filmmakers backtracked and said they would select a new actor to play Christian after Charlie was forced to drop out over scheduling issues.
As we now know, the search for the new Christian didn’t take too long. Within only a few weeks, Jamie was announced as the replacement — and the rest is history.
With Jamie and Dakota leading, Fifty Shades of Grey was released in 2015, followed by Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed in 2017 and 2018.
Though critics certainly didn’t love the movies, the franchise was a huge commercial success, bringing in a combined total of more than $1 billion at the box office — and now, Charlie’s joked about missing out on such a significant payday.
Last week, Charlie was asked by a TMZ reporter how the decision to drop out of the Fifty Shades movies worked out for him in the long run, prompting him to reply: “I’m not nearly as rich as I would’ve been.”
Though Jamie has discussed the damage that the Fifty Shades franchise did to his reputation as an actor, Charlie previously said he has major regrets about dropping out of the films, describing the decision as “heartbreaking.”
