Jamie Dornan has confirmed whether or not he’ll ever return to Christian Grey

A major box office success, the Fifty Shades of Grey movie adaptations came out between 2015 and 2018 and truly were a pop culture phenomenon. Based on the best-selling book series by E. L. James, the sexy films follow a college student named Anastasia Steele who falls for a wealthy businessman with a love for BDSM named Christian Grey. Though the books and the movies were panned by critics, stars Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson became huge names overnight for their portrayals of the two main characters.

There’s no doubt the Fifty Shades of Grey movies put Dornan and Johnson on the map, but now that so much time has passed, is there a chance they would ever reprise their roles? It’s no secret things were really messy behind the scenes considering all of the creative differences. Well, if you’ve still been holding out hope the 41-year-old actor will put on the signature suit and tie again, prepare to be disappointed. Dornan has confirmed multiple times that he’s done with the role for good.

Jamie Dornan says he won’t return to 50 Shades of Grey

As reported by Cosmopolitan, Dornan shared in two separate interviews that he’s no longer interested in playing Christian Grey. The most recent came in 2018 while appearing on the UK talk show Lorraine, where he explained there aren’t any other books to follow, plus he’s not getting any younger:

"“There’s no other books. Erica wrote the first two books again from Christian’s perspective, but I guess we’ve done those films, the same stories, so they won’t be doing that again…Unless Erica keeps writing, but Dakota and I are – particularly me, I’m getting too old for this.”"

It’s true that E. L. James did write more Fifty Shades books — Grey, Darker, and Freed — however they are a retelling of the original story from Christian’s perspective. It wouldn’t really make sense to turn those into movies when they already adapted the first three. As for his age, well, Dornan is in his 40s now. The story would have to make a time jump so he wouldn’t have to play a character in his late 20s.

In a 2016 interview with The Sun (via Cosmopolitan), Dornan explained that he moves on from roles pretty quickly, so while fans might still be dreaming about Christian Grey, he’s not. “I’m actually finished with it. I’ve done Fifty Shades forever,” he said.

It would be interesting to think about what a Fifty Shades of Grey spinoff could look like, especially as so many movie franchises are being expanded with reboots, remakes, and spinoffs these days. Maybe if the books are ever adapted again years and years from now, Dornan and Johnson could appear in minor roles. Hey, anything’s possible.