How Fifty Shades of Grey Led To Venom: The Last Dance

If there are two movie franchises that occupy opposite ends of a spectrum, it is Fifty Shades of Grey and Venom. One is an adult-orientated erotic romance adapted from a popular book that began as Twilight fan-fiction. The other is an adaptation of a popular Spider-Man villain that can’t seem to use Spider-Man and is the foundation for an entire shared universe of projects based around supporting characters from that Marvel franchise. Yet something connects Fifty Shades of Grey and Venom, and it isn’t star Dakota Johnson being Anastasia Steele in Fifty Shades of Grey and Madame Web in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe.

The trailer for Venom: The Last Dance has finally hit the internet, and it looks like it could be one of the biggest hits of 2024, as well as the closing chapter of the Venom trilogy. The movie will mark the feature film directorial debut of Kelly Marcel, who had written the two previous Venom movies and was the screenwriter for Fifty Shades of Grey before. Yet behind-the-scenes conflicts with the book’s author forced her out of the sequel, leading her to the Venom franchise. Here is how Fifty Shades of Grey inadvertently led to Venom: The Last Dance.

Kelly Marcel Clashed With Fifty Shades of Grey Author E.L. James

Published in 2011, Fifty Shades of Grey was written by E.L. James and originated as Twilight fan-fiction called Masters of the Universe. Much like Twilight, Fifty Shades of Grey took the world by storm and became a cultural phenomenon, being a major hit on bookshelves with two sequels, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed, in 2012. That same year, Universal Pictures and Focus Features acquired the film rights to the cultural phenomenon. Kelly Marcel was hired to pen the script in October 2012, a year before her first credited screenplay, Saving Mr. Banks, would be released. Shortly after, Sam Taylor-Johnson was hired to direct the film.

Production was notably difficult, as Johnson was often butting heads with author E.L. James, who maintained a certain amount of creative control. This also meant major changes to Marcel’s script, which left her heartbroken. Marcel’s script, which was positively received by Universal Pictures, was to tell the story in a non-linear format. Marcel also wanted to remove much of the dialogue, focusing more on the physical action.

E.L. James vetoed these decisions as she wanted them to stick closer to the structure of her books, including maintaining much of the book’s heavily criticized dialogue, which she insisted was what the fans wanted. There were even reports that James was threatening to pull support from the film if the movie didn’t keep the book dialogue, which Universal agreed to so as not to anger the massive fanbase.

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The Reception of Fifty Shades

Fifty Shades of Grey opened in theaters on February 13, 2015, and grossed an impressive $85 million over the three-day weekend, with $93 million over the four-day Presidents’ Day weekend. It would later gross $166 million domestically and $569 million worldwide. However, reviews for the film were not kind, boasting a 28% on Rotten Tomatoes, with much of the criticism leveled at the film’s clunky dialogue that James insisted on in the movie. It seemed like the more promising, interesting take on the material that both Kelly Marcel and director Sam Taylor-Johnson had in mind was crushed under the demands of original author E.L. James and Universal Studios and Focus Features insistence on keeping her happy.

Universal Pictures quickly moved forward on the sequels, with Fifty Shades Darker officially beginning development one month after the first film’s release. Sam Taylor-Johnson officially left in March 2015, and by April 2015, Marcel was pushed out of the franchise as E.L. James hired her husband, screenwriter Niall Leonard, to pen the scripts for both Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed, as he was more than willing to abide by the book’s original intent.

Fifty Shades Darker opened in theaters on February 10, 2017, and grossed $381 million worldwide, with the final film, 2018’s Fifty Shades Freed, grossing $371 million worldwide. Not only was there a marked box office decrease, but the movies got even worse reviews than the first film, each scoring 11% on Rotten Tomatoes. While the Fifty Shades franchise was losing steam fast, Marcel was in the works on what would be one of the biggest surprise franchise hits, Venom.

Kelly Marcel Is THE Creative Force Behind Venom

Sony Pictures had been trying to get a Venom movie off the ground since at least 2008, following the release of Spider-Man 3. They officially announced a Venom movie in 2013, before the release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 set in that universe. However, following that film’s disappointment, Sony Pictures retooled the Spider-Man film series by making a deal with Marvel Studios to allow the character into the MCU. Following the Spider-Man brand revival with his appearance in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War and 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, Sony moved forward with their planned Venom movie but set in its own universe.

Kelly Marcel, Scott Rosenberg, and Jeff Pinkner are among the screenwriters credited with 2018’s Venom. Starring Tom Hardy and directed by Reuben Flesher, Venom is a reimagined origin of the famous Spider-Man villain that removes any mention of the webhead from his origin. Despite receiving largely negative reviews, 30% on Rotten Tomatoes, Venom was a massive box office hit. It grossed $80.3 million in its opening weekend and set the record at the time for the biggest opening weekend for the month of October. The movie grossed $213 million domestically and $856.1 million worldwide, making 71% of its money from the worldwide market.

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Marcel was the sole credited screenwriter for the 2021 sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Now directed by Andy Serkis, the movie brought in fan-favorite villain Carnage. It also doubled down on the film’s comedic elements and the queer subtext of Venom and Eddie Brock’s relationship that audiences responded to positively in the previous film.

It paid off as Venom: Let There Be Carnage scored slightly better reviews from critics, 57% on Rotten Tomatoes, and was a big hit for theaters as they were in the early stages of recovery following massive shutdowns from the COVID-19 pandemic, grossing a post-pandemic record of $90.1 million in its first three days. It matched the domestic total of the first film with $213 million, and even though it did not get a China release like the first film, it still managed a worldwide gross of $506 million. Sony Pictures execs, particularly Venom star Tom Hardy, realized how important Marcel has been to the Venom franchise to where she is now directing Venom: The Last Dance.

Fifty Shades of Venom

Marcel spoke about how disappointed she was about how Fifty Shades of Grey turned out and said that it was a heartbreaking experience. One has to wonder if she and director Sam Taylor-Johnson had more creative control over the film and if they could have elevated the book and made it a more acclaimed and interesting film franchise. Their departure saw a major dip in the quality of the film series. Yet while she was not able to guide the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise, she has been a key architect in not only making the Venom movies a hit but making them the only live-action Sony Spider-Man spin-offs that audiences seem to enjoy.

Both Morbius and Madame Web have been box office bombs and critical disappointments, with expectations for Kraven the Hunter being low. Yet Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage have both been box office hits but have found themselves a loyal fanbase. The Venom movies are the films holding up Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, partly due to Kelly Marcel. The behind-the-scenes conflicts of Fifty Shades of Grey led to Venom, which looks to be coming to a much more satisfying final chapter than the Fifty Shades franchise did when Venom: The Last Dance opens in theaters on October 25, 2021.

Watch the trailer for Venom: The Last Dance below!