the girl in the spider’s web

THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER’S WEB The Crown’s Claire Foy swaps diamond tiaras for dragon tattoos as the new Lisbeth Salander.

Lisbeth Salander is back, and this time Claire Foy’s donning the leather jacket.

There’s an element of lunacy about wanting to take it on, in a way,” smiles Claire Foy, the latest ‘lunatic’ to take on the role of Lisbeth Salander: hacker, private investigator and testicle-tasering avenging angel of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series. “I can’t shy away from the fact that I have willingly taken on a part where there’s an expectation.”

Those expectations stem not only from the phenomenally successful novels, but an already intimidating cinematic legacy, including a trilogy of superb Swedish films starring Noomi Rapace, and David Fincher’s 2011 remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which starred Rooney Mara as Salander and Daniel Craig as investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist. But rather than re-re-adapt Larsson’s original tales, Don’t Breathe director Fede Alvarez is taking the soft-reboot approach, enlisting an all-new cast – including Borg/McEnroe’s Sverrir Gudnason as Blomkvist – and bringing the fourth book in the series (penned by David Lagercrantz following Larsson’s death) to the screen for the first time.

Shooting in Sweden and Berlin during a bitter winter, Spider’s Web aims to chill and thrill with an adrenalised, Americanised take on the traditional Nordic noir, while also offering a captivating glimpse into Lisbeth’s past in the shape of her sister Camilla, played by Blade Runner 2049’s killer replicant Sylvia Hoeks. “They’ve both been through something so traumatic and life-changing,” Foy explains.

“They loved each other deeply, and then suddenly, that got ripped away. In any family, when trauma happens, it’s how people cope in that moment that defines how the future will be.”

Let’s just say, as far as Camilla is concerned, Lisbeth didn’t cope well in the moment, and now the past is coming back to haunt her – a common theme in the Millennium series, in which Lisbeth takes pleasure in haunting abusive men who escape justice. For a film made in the middle of the #MeToo revolution, Lisbeth’s righteous crusade took on an added level of importance.

“It was very interesting making it, and that happened,” Foy recalls. “I would be going to meetings, and then be going, ‘Look at the film I’m making. The character I’m playing – crikey!’ This character came out of Stieg Larsson wanting to right a wrong, and investigate this girl who has been the victim of abuse in quite an extreme way. He already knew that, the world already knew it, and now it’s finally being spoken about.”

ETA | 9 NOVEMBER / THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER’S WEB OPENS LATER THIS YEAR.

‘they’ve been through something so traumatic and life-changing’ Claire Foy