How do you cast off a role like Queen Elizabeth II? You throw away the finery, wave farewell to the corgis, and double down on piercings and hacker skills. Fresh from casting off The Crown, Claire Foy is taking over from Rooney Mara and Noomi Rapace to become the big screen’s third incarnation of Lisbeth Salander (aka ‘the girl who hurts men who hurt women’) in new Millennium adaptation, The Girl in the Spider’s Web — and she looks every bit the dark, avenging angel in the first trailer.
Rather than carry on directly from David Fincher’s 2011 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo remake, Fede Álvarez’s film adapts the fourth book, the first of David Lagercrantz’ continuation of the late Stieg Larsson's trilogy. The plot is only hinted at in the trailer but looks to once again set Lisbeth and journalist Mikael Blomkvist (now played by Sverrir Gudnason) on the trail of violent misogynists and the women affected by their wrongs.
Also in the cast are the likes of Lakeith Stanfield, Stephen Merchant, and Phantom Thread’s break-out star Vicky Krieps, while the film has a screenplay by Locke writer and Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight. With Fincher’s film notably struggling at the box office despite a positive critical reception, it will be interesting to see how audiences respond to a new helping of Salander, one of the greatest screen heroines of recent years, in Spider’s Web. We’ll find out exactly how it does after the film hits UK cinemas on 9 November.
Keep up to date with all the latest movie news, click here to subscribe to Empire on Great Magazines and have the latest issue delivered to your door every month.