After Charlie Hunnam was originally announced to play Christian Grey, there was a decidedly divided online reaction to his casting, which resolved itself when the actor subsequently pulled out of the project, citing "scheduling conflicts" as the reason. Though online conspiracy theorists continue to suggest that Hunnam merely buckled under the pressure of the fanbase or realised that a Fifty Shades movie wasn't necessarily a great career move for an actor of his caliber, Hunnam eventually spoke about his departure several months later, and stuck to his original scheduling story. Hunnam declared the decision to exit "heartbreaking" and said, "It became like an embarrassment of riches...I had so much going on, and I was already committed to doing Guillermo 's film ." Either way, with the mostly negative press coming from the production so far, there's no way not doing this movie has harmed his career in any way, so it was likely a smart, safe decision either way.