Fifty Shades Darker: Ludicrously insubstantial teaser leaks online, Jamie Dornan fans go wild

Universal stokes Fifty Shades fervour two years before the sequel's release

Jamie Dornan stars in the second Fifty Shades film, Fifty Shades Darker (Universal)

As film studios attempt to plug their releases with increasingly short trailers, the merest glimpse of the next Fifty Shades movie has surfaced online.

Despite not having a director confirmed to helm Fifty Shades Darker after the departure of Sam Taylor-Johnson, it is already being promoted with a 20 second teaser trailer.

Featuring nothing more than Jamie Dornan putting on a face mask accompanied by the disturbing sound of a high pitched piano key playing repeatedly, the leaked teaser is likely to garner interest from legions of Fifty Shades fans regardless.

Film studio Universal had intended to use it as a marketing ploy - due to appear at the end of the Fifty Shades of Grey DVD when it is released in June - but it has already been leaked.

Fifty Shades Darker is not due to be released for another two years, scheduled in time for the Valentine’s Day weekend of 2017.

But some fans failed to see behind the filmmaker's thinly veiled attempt to over hype the film two years in advance of its release:

Jamie Dornan and Anastasia Steele have signed a three film contract to star in the franchise until the third movie, Fifty Shades Freed, in 2018.

Acclaimed director Sam Taylor-Johnson left the Fifty Shades franchise in March, saying it had been “an intense and incredible journey for which I am hugely grateful”.

She had previously admitted it was “difficult” and “frustrating” to work with Fifty Shades creator EL James on the first film.

Fifty Shades of Grey broke box office records in the UK to become the biggest 18-rated film opening ever.

The movie made $558 million in total, breaking box office records in 100 countries in its opening Valentine’s Day weekend.

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