Though hopes of seeing Charlie Hunnam as Christian Grey have faded to black, Sons of Anarchy fans are still able to feast on Jax Teller as usual.
The British actor, dressed down in a hoodie and jeans in varying shades of blue, reported for work Monday to continue shooting the finale of the FX hit's sixth season, looking about as troubled and burdened as Jax usually looks but otherwise none the worse for wear.
Over the weekend, in case you hadn't heard, Universal Pictures confirmed that Hunnam had dropped out of the movie adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey, which was scheduled to start production soon, citing his busy TV-centric schedule. (E! Online is a member of the NBCUniversal family.)
"I was Charlie all the best x," Fifty Shades author E.L. James tweeted after the casting bombshell, apparently not in the mood to add the other two x's.
Though the 33-year-old thesp had recently told Entertainment Weekly that he was taking the role of S&M-practicing billionaire Christian Grey "very seriously" and intended to "explore the nature of who this character is," a source told us after he left the film that his ultimate decision was not actually a surprise.
"The attention and the pressure was intense," the source said. "More than anything he hates attention and being in Fifty Shades of Grey would force him to do lots of media. That's really not his thing. Charlie doesn't want to be massively famous. Plus, he hates conforming and being told what to do. This role would force him to have to be something he is not."
Well, he had the hotness thing down already, but the original casting announcement was indeed more of a shock than the cutting of the ties.
And Christian Grey is really more of a tying-of-the-ties sort.