Yesterday, fans of Stieg Larsson’s Millenium trilogy were treated to some news — not only is a fifth book being written for the series, but the Hollywood adaptation of the book series is finally getting a continuation. The new book is untitled, and will be written by David Lagercrantz, the same man who penned the fourth book, The Girl In The Spider’s Web, after Larsson’s passing. The new movie, meanwhile, will be a sequel and reboot, based on the most recent novel, and passing over the events of the second and third books in the series. The film will be directed by Fede Álvarez, and is going to begin production this fall for an October 2018 release date.
As a reboot, rather than a direct sequel, there will be changes to the franchise, including a new cast — which the director has now confirmed, along with an explanation for his decision to re-cast. Álvarez tweeted about his reasons in response to a question from a fan, who tweeted “Awesome news! But I’m a little disappointed that Mara & Craig won’t be returning, what’s your reason?”. Álvarez’s response was simple:
The first adaptation of the series (in English), was The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, in 2009. It starred Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander, and Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist — the two key players in the series. An earlier Swedish adaptation of the trilogy saw Lisbeth played by Noomi Rapace and Blomkvist played by Michael Nyqvist. While Mara and Craig would still be potentially available to reprise their starring roles in a new movie, the confirmation of a re-cast puts the emphasis on rebooting the franchise, rather than creating a more direct sequel.
Fans have already started to speculate about who might pick up the titular role for the upcoming thriller, with both Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman rumored to be in the running. There is no news yet about who might be picking up the mantle of Blomkvist, although there is bound to be plenty of speculation on that front as well, at least until Sony makes some official casting announcements.
It’s exciting to see the Millenium series return to the big screen, especially as many wondered if it would ever happen. If the upcoming film makes its planned release date, there will have been almost 10 years between the first movie and its sequel — a huge gap, but one that the popularity of the series will no doubt overcome. It makes a lot of sense to make the sequel a reboot, as well, rather than attempting to pick up where the first left off, as this will give Álvarez a chance to put his own stamp on the series.
However, some will remain disappointed that the cast who made the original film so great will not be returning, especially as both Mara and Craig have expressed their willingness to return for a sequel in the past. Readers are also less than thrilled to hear that the film will skip two entire books to focus on the fourth installment, and it’s worth questioning how difficult it will be to include the salient plot details from those novels in addition to the plot of the fourth. For now, however, we’ll just be keeping an eye out for news of the new cast for The Girl In The Spider’s Web.
Girl In the Spider’s Web Director Explains Reason For Recasting