First ‘Fifty Shades Darker’ trailer filled with lots of plot, little kissing

Tuesday morning got a bit more grey than usual with the release of the first trailer for upcoming “Fifty Shades of Grey” sequel “Fifty Shades Darker.”

Adaptations of the bestselling novels by E.L. James, the films examine the burgeoning relationship between Christian Grey, a wildly successful businessman with a penchant for BDSM, and Anastasia Steele, a recent college graduate who is working as a personal assistant.

Naturally, it is a love story for the ages.

The trailer for the latest film appears to pick up where “Fifty Shades of Grey” left off, namely that Christian and Ana, relationship torn asunder, are now slowly and inevitably getting back together, in no small part because there’s still another book in the trilogy to be filmed.

Where the first film opted to show less sex and more extended BDSM contract negotiations (a contract that eventually gets completely violated anyway, so I don’t even know why they had a contract), “Fifty Shades Darker” appears to be erring on the side of introducing needless complications to keep our ball-gagged lovers apart, including weird threats to Ana’s safety and, well, mostly just weird threats to Ana’s safety.

Just show us the sex, “Fifty Shades Darker.” The books were critically savaged hot messes that sold over 100 million copies for the sex.

While no actual sex is featured in the new trailer, there is some rain kissing and some naked back exposure and, most importantly, Jamie Dornan doing shirtless pull-ups.

And that may just be enough for film viewers, who turned out in droves to see “Fifty Shades of Grey,” earning the film more than $570 million worldwide.

It’s definitely enough for James, who announced last week that she was releasing a new book, that was actually just “Fifty Shades Darker,” but from Christian’s point of view.

An excerpt from the book published on James’ Facebook page read, “Opening my eyes, I stare at the front door through the Audi’s darkened glass that now reflects my mood. Nothing turns out as I expect with Miss Anastasia Steele. Panic knots my stomach once more.”

So you likely have that to look forward to in 2017, as well.

“Fifty Shades Darker” slips into something a shade darker, like theaters, Feb. 10, 2017.

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libby.hill@latimes.com

Twitter: @midwestspitfire

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