'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' Sequel Has A Villain: 'The Square' Star Claes Bang

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo sequel is expanding its growing web of cast members, this time tapping The Square star Claes Bang as its villain.

There's no word on what role Bang will be playing in The Girl in the Spider's Web, but it's certain that he will be facing off against Claire Foy's goth hacker Lisbeth Salander in some capacity.

For a series whose first book was titled Men Who Hate Women in its native Sweden, it's no surprise that The Girl in the Spider's Web would have a male villain.

The news of Bang's casting comes from Variety, which also confirms the film's October 19, 2018 release date and the casting of Blade Runner 2049 breakout actress Sylvia Hoeks as Lisbeth's twin sister Camilla. The casting of Mikael Blomkvist, the co-lead of the series who was played by Daniel Craig in David Fincher's 2011 English-language adaptation of the Swedish film starring Rooney Mara in the title role, has not yet been announced.

The Girl in the Spider's Web is directed by Don't Breathe's Fede Alvarez and written by Steven Knight, Alvarez and Jay Basu, based on David Lagercrantz's 2015 novel. The original Swedish film was followed by The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Next, but Fincher's film was only a modest box office success and the direct sequels never came to be. It may be better to think of this new movie as a reboot, as it is deliberately jumping ahead to a more recent novel in the series.

I have not yet read The Girl in the Spider's Web — I couldn't quite pick up a modestly reviewed follow-up to Larsson's series that was written after his passing — but from a quick skim of the plot, it seems that Bang could be playing the mysterious assassin Holtser, one of the many involved in the enigmatic criminal organization known as the "Spider Society." The story promises a larger role for Lisbeth's oft-mentioned twin sister Camilla too — which bodes well for Hoeks, who stole many a scene as the brutal replicant Luv in Blade Runner 2049.

Here's a synopsis of the book's plot:

A genius hacker who has always been an outsider. A journalist with a penchant for danger. She is Lisbeth Salander, the girl with the dragon tattoo. He is Mikael Blomkvist, crusading editor of Millennium. One night, Blomkvist receives a call from a source who claims to have been given information vital to the United States by a young female hacker. Blomkvist, always on the lookout for a story, reaches out to Salander for help. She, as usual, has plans of her own. Together they are drawn into a ruthless underworld of spies, cybercriminals, and government operatives—some willing to kill to protect their secrets.