The Girl in the Spider’s Web will open against the new Halloween

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

Less than a week after an October 5th, 2018 release date was announced for director Fede Alvarez's THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO sequel THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB, the movie has already been delayed. Thankfully, it's not much of a delay: it's just been pushed back two weeks and is now scheduled to reach theatres on October 19th, 2018.

Distributor Columbia Pictures moved THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB for another spider-related project, a comic book movie based on the Spider-Man character VENOM.

When it had the October 5th date, THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB was set to go up against the Warner Bros. release of James Wan's AQUAMAN. When AQUAMAN moved back to December 18th, VENOM slid into October 5th and THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB moved to October 19th – where it will now being opening up against the Blumhouse / John Carpenter production of David Gordon Green and Danny McBride's HALLOWEEN reboot.

Going up against a high profile HALLOWEEN movie less than two weeks before Halloween doesn't sound like the best position to be in.

Based on the fourth novel in the Millennium series, THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB has been written by Steven Knight, Jay Basu, and Alvarez. The story: 

She is the girl with the dragon tattoo — a genius hacker and uncompromising misfit. He is a crusading journalist whose championing of the truth often brings him to the brink of prosecution.

Late one night, Blomkvist receives a phone call from a source claiming to have information vital to the United States. The source has been in contact with a young female superhacker — a hacker resembling someone Blomkvist knows all too well. The implications are staggering. Blomkvist, in desperate need of a scoop for Millennium, turns to Salander for help. She, as usual, has her own agenda. The secret they are both chasing is at the center of a tangled web of spies, cybercriminals, and governments around the world, and someone is prepared to kill to protect it…  

While I'm interested to see what Alvarez will do in the world of DRAGON TATTOO, I am disappointed by the news that Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig will not reprising their roles from David Fincher's film. Alvarez has taken responsibility for the recasting, saying that casting is "50% of the director's work", but there was talk that Columbia planned to recast for the new movie long before Alvarez got involved. 

Actresses rumored to be up for the role of Lisbeth Salander include Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson. Alicia Vikander was said to be in the mix at one point as well. Noomi Rapace played the character for a trilogy of Swedish-language adaptations. I was hoping Mara would get her own trilogy (or more), but that's obviously not going to happen.