Despite being based on a wildly popular book and starring some respectably talented actors, David Fincher’s 2011 The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo adaptation somehow still wasn’t popular enough for Sony Pictures to immediately move ahead with a sequel. Instead, the studio dragged its feet and waffled back and forth on the subject, eventually suggesting in 2015 that it would totally reboot the series instead of simply making sequels. Meanwhile, star Rooney Mara did her own waffling, first by saying that she probably wouldn’t return to the series and then by declaring that she’s definitely up for it and would come back even if they didn’t ask her to.
Now, Variety is reporting that Fede Alvarez—the director behind this summer’s surprise hit Don’t Breathe—has signed on for a Dragon Tattoo sequel titled The Girl In The Spider’s Web. That would make it an adaptation of David Lagercrantz’s 2015 novel, which is not part of the original trilogy written by Stieg Larsson (who died in 2004). That means it could be considered both a sequel and a reboot, which means the studio actually had it right both ways. There’s no word on if Mara will actually return, as the Variety story doesn’t even mention her, but this being both a reboot and a sequel gives Sony a chance to go either way with it.