Steven Knight on The Girl In The Spider’s Web: why it could be a great sequel

In recent weeks, whispers have abound in Hollywood circles that Sony were looking to finally bring Stieg Larsson’s novels back to the big screen following 2011’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Supposed to be the first in a English-language trilogy, the film had all the ingredients to be a huge success, but sadly didn’t quite live up to the expectations placed upon it.

Directed by David Fincher, the film starred Daniel Craig (Spectre) and Rooney Mara (Carol), grossed over $232million at the worldwide box office and was generally well received by critics. But with a budget of $90million and more spent on advertising, it was considered a disappointment, and plans for an immediate sequel didn’t materialise.

Mara has repeatedly been keen to play Lisbeth Salander again, but she, Craig and Fincher all moved on. Now writer Steven Knight (Allied, Locke) has been brought on-board to pen the screenplay, and he has been talking this week about the project and his involvement. Speaking to Collider, Knight said on the story:  “…the girl (Lisbeth) is really the central character. She’s the whole thing. It’s not really Blomkvist,” – the latter raising more question marks about a reprise for Daniel Craig.

Whether the film would address those missing stories, Knight continued: “It can’t be anything other than a sequel, but a couple of books have been skipped, so it is different, in that sense. It’s really taking a very strong central character and thinking, how do you execute this? It’s quite different.”

So will The Girl In The Spider’s Web fall the way of its predecessor? It seems unlikely that Craig would return, but many will salivate over the trifecta of Alvarez, Knight and Mara that could be just the kind of combination that Sony needs right now after a string of disappointments. Since the original film, Mara’s star has continued to soar and has already spoken of her desire to reprise the role, and with Alvarez riding high from this year’s sleeper hit Don’t Breathe, this team could be just the right one to breathe new life into the series.