Leveraging his well-honed ability to act clearly and calmly while staring into the eyes of people who only barely manifest the distinguishing qualities of a human being, Hannibal’s Hugh Dancy has signed on for the sequel to Fifty Shades Of Grey. The British actor—fresh off his role as a cult leader in Hulu’s The Path, meaning that he’s also well-versed now in objects of fanatical, ultimately unhealthy devotion—will play the psychiatrist of Jamie Dornan’s Christian Grey, a man guilty of crimes even worse than those of Dancy’s old murder boyfriend, Hannibal Lecter: making cinematic, BDSM-influenced sex seem unimaginably dull.
Dancy will play Dr. Flynn, a largely unseen character from E.L. James’ books, giving Grey someone besides love interest Ana Steele to ramble to about his ostensibly ribald, mostly just kind of boring tastes. Darker director James Foley seems to be making a concerted effort to expand the cast of this second film, adding in characters only mentioned in passing in the books. He also recently cast Teen Wolf’s Tyler Hoechlin as a client pursued by Steele, presumably on the theory that every new cast member introduced cuts down on the number of scenes in which audiences are forced to watch Dornan and Dakota Johnson interact, exhibiting all the raw sexuality of a lukewarm bowl of grits.