'Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' Sequel Replaces Daniel Craig With Norwegian Actor Sverrir Gudnason

Meet your new Mikael Blomkvist.

Norwegian actor Sverrir Gudnason has been cast as the male lead in The Girl in the Spider's Web, Sony's sequel to David Fincher's English-language adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Gudnason is taking on the role of Mikael Blomkvist, the intrepid journalist who becomes a wary ally of Lisbeth Salander (now played by The Crown star Claire Foy). The Blomqvist role was previously played by Daniel Craig in Fincher's adaptation and Michael Nyqvist in the Swedish films.

With Gudnason on board, the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo sequel cast is nearly complete. Reported by Variety, Gudnason has joined Foy, who is taking on the singular role originated by Noomi Rapace in the Swedish films and brought stateside by Rooney Mara. The cast also includes Blade Runner 2049's Sylvia Hoeks as Salander's twin sister, The Square star Claes Bang as the villain, and Mindhunter's Cameron Britton.

Gudnason is probably best known for his role as Bjorn Borg opposite Shia LaBeouf in the tennis drama Borg/McEnroe.

Unlike the cast of Fincher's 2011 adaptation of the best-selling Stieg Larsson novel, the actors in The Girl in the Spider's Web seem to be more distinctly international, with Gudnason hailing from Norway, Hoeks from the Netherlands, and Bang from Denmark. This could be a nod to the Nordic roots of the original Millennium series and a way of setting the new film apart from previous adaptations. And to be perfectly honest, they're all a lot less expensive than Craig and Mara.

The sequel has been met with some skepticism from fans of the books and the previous film adaptations. While Fincher's film wasn't the franchise starter that everyone intended it to be, it has found a strong following over the past few years. And then there's the fact that The Girl in the Spider's Web bypasses Larsson's original "Millennium trilogy" and is instead based on David Lagercrantz's Lisbeth Salander follow-up, published after Larsson's death.

As a fan of Larsson's Millennium trilogy and Fincher's taut, tense take on it, I can't help but be wary of the sequel, though the cast intrigues me. Hoeks stole every scene as the unhinged Luv in Blade Runner 2049 and Claire Foy is impressively subdued in Netflix's The Crown. I look forward to seeing how Foy can embody the rage-filled goth hacker persona of Lisbeth Salander, especially since it's such a 180 from her period piece roles. I know little about Gudnason and Bang's performances, but they seem to have made an impact in their breakout English-language roles. Director Fede Alvarez, who helmed the 2016 surprise hit Don't Breathe, is also an intriguing new talent. We'll see if the up-and-coming cast can rival the magic that Fincher and company brought us with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.