(Access Hollywood) — Former “Once Upon A Time” hunk Jamie Dornan is stepping into the role of Christian Grey in the big screen version of E L James’ “Fifty Shades of Grey,” per Variety.
The actor, from Northern Ireland, replaces Charlie Hunnam, who exited the film earlier this month.
Jamie’s biggest role on U.S. screens was in ABC’s “Once Upon A Time,” where he played Sheriff Graham in Season 1.
While there were some reports that Charlie wasn’t ready for all the attention that came with such a high profile role, Jamie may be more used to intense fan frenzies. When his character was axed on “Once” (more specifically, when Regina/The Evil Queen tore out his heart) fans protested online — loudly.
So popular was his hunky character, who had dalliances with Regina (Lana Parrilla) and Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison), that producers brought him back twice — first, at the end of Season 1 and for a guest spot in Season 2.
In March of this year, as he prepared to make another return to the show, Jamie addressed the hate mail/Tweets his “Once” producers were still getting over his character’s exit a season before.
“I guess I essentially see that as a compliment, but I think people can be pretty hairy, like from what those boys tell me,” Jamie told Access at the time. “I don’t want to induce any sort of like hatred or anything and I don’t want those guys to be massively under fire from, you know, crazy fans because of what they did. But it wasn’t solely their choice. But I guess I should essentially take it as a compliment that people care that much. A bit of hate mail’s OK (laughs), but the death threats – that’s too much.”
A rep for Jamie didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Access Hollywood.
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