Why Rooney Mara Will No Longer Play Lisbeth Salander In ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’ Sequel

It’s been a long time since we saw Rooney Mara play ace hacker Lisbeth Salander and Daniel Craig portray a (handsome) investigative journalist in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” Fortunately, a sequel to the “Dragon Tattoo” movie is currently in its pre-production phase with filming scheduled to begin in September this year. Unfortunately, Mara and Craig won’t be reprising their roles.

Sony Pictures is currently looking for an actress that can replace Mara in her Oscar-nominated role as the super-hacker suffering from asperger’s syndrome. Additionally, the company is also looking for Craig’s replacement. He played Millenium magazine journalist Mikael Blomkvist.

Furthermore, according to BuzzFeed News, the director has also been replaced. While David Fincher helmed the successful 2011 movie, “The Girl in the Spider’s Web” will be directed by “Don’t Breathe” director Fede Alvarez.

READ: “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” sequel is happening.

Of course, fans of the “Dragon Tattoo” film are disappointed to hear that the two actors will be replaced. On Tuesday, Alvarez explained to a concerned fan the reason behind his decision to remove Mara and Craig in the movie’s cast.

However, it is also believed that one of the reasons behind choosing to recast Salandar and Blomkvist’s roles is because Sony wants to reduce the cost of producing it even though the first movie made $230 million worldwide on just a $90 million budget.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Sony is considering Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson and Alicia Vikander to play the feminist hacker. In the Swedish versions of the same film, Noomi Rapace played the role.

Moreover, Sony isn’t producing Stieg Larsson’s second and third books of the Millennium trilogy – “The Girl Who Played With Fire” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.” This is because writing the screenplay for the plots of both films proved to be difficult. Steve Zaillian, who wrote the screenplay for “Dragon Tattoo,” attempted to write the screenplay based on the plots of these two books, but it proved problematic since it tells a complicated story of a sex trafficking ring, a deflected spy and a government that failed to protect the basic human rights of two women. Salander lies at the heart to these stories.

“The Girl In the Spider’s Web” follows Salander’s various hacking projects, including breaking into the NSA’s intranet, and Blomkvist as he navigates Millenium’s declining readership in the digital age.

“The Girl In the Spider’s Web” hits theatres on Oct. 5, 2018.