Sky’s ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ Series Draws A-list Cast
The small screen remake of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' still needs an American distributor.
Since Stieg Larsson released his original Millennium trilogy of novels between 2005 and 2007, the thrillers have been a popular basis for adaptation. The first novel, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Män Som Hatar Kvinnor, literally translated: Men Who Hate Women), was released as a feature film starring Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace as Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander. Two sequels, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, followed in 2010, before all three were recut and released as a six-part TV miniseries in 2011.
That same year, the American remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, starring Daniel Craig (Narnia) and Rooney Mara (Women Talking) as Blomkvist and Salander, hit theaters; the production then skipped ahead to the second trilogy (written by David Lagercrantz) and released The Girl in the Spider’s Web, with Claire Foy (Wolf Hall) replacing Mara as Salander.
Now Sky has returned to the Larsson series with a brand new small-screen series of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Currently billed as an eight-episode limited series, the TV series will focus on the original 2005 novel, with David Oyelowo as Blomkvist, and Viola Prettejohn (who is best known for playing Princess Elizabeth – the younger version of Foy’s Queen Elizabeth – in The Crown) taking the role of Salander.
Here is the series’ synopsis:
Based on the first novel in the Millennium series, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo follows cancelled star journalist Mikael Blomkvist and uncompromising hacker Lisbeth Salander as they investigate the disappearance of Harriet Vanger, who vanished more than three decades ago from the secluded island home of one of Sweden’s most powerful industrial dynasties. As they delve deeper into the Vanger family’s buried past, their investigation draws them closer to a chilling threat unfolding dangerously close to them in the present.
The eight-part mystery thriller is a timely evolution of one of the world’s most celebrated literary thriller franchises, with the Millennium novels having sold more than 100 million copies worldwide. Set in the present day, the series retains the characters, gripping mystery, and investigative DNA of Larsson’s novels while exploring how power, secrecy, and misogyny take on new, insidious forms in an ever more connected digital world.
Oyelowo (Les Misérables) and Prettejohn (Amadeus) will co-star alongside Jonathan Pryce (Slow Horses) as Henrik Vanger, and Jessica Raine (The Devil’s Hour) as Cecilia Vanger. David Oyelowo (Les Misérables) plays Mikael Blomkvist, with James D’Arcy (Oppenheimer) as Martin Vanger, Lena Olin (Nine Perfect Strangers) as Isabella Vanger, Camille Cottin (Killing Eve) as Erika Berger, Alun Armstrong (Sherwood) as Harald Vanger, and Paul Ready (Ann Droid) as Birger Vanger.
The ensemble cast also includes Ariyon Bakare (Mr Loverman), Allan Corduner (Bookish), Enzo Cilenti (Kill Jackie), Dónall Ó Héalaí (Hidden Assets), Lee Ross (Andor), Lochlann Ó Mearáin (Harry Wild), Steve Wall (Black Doves), Justin Salinger (Hijack), Rochenda Sandall (Amandaland), Danny Horn (Riot Women), Lucy Brown (Midsomer Murders), Alastair Natkiel (Line of Duty), Ewan Labram (Dept Q), Joseph Mason-Coombs (Lazarus), Daniella Arthur-Kennedy (First Day on Earth), Ingrid Keighley (Invasion), and small screen newcomer Naomi Townsend.
Series creator Amanda Coe (The Trial of Christine Keeler) is lead writer on the series, with Steve Lightfoot and Angela LaManna also penning installments. Reinaldo Marcus Green (Top Boy) is lead director, with Andrea Harkin and Amy Neil also helming episodes, and Nuala O’Leary producing. Coe, Lightfoot, LaManna, and Oyelowo executive produce, alongside Charlotte Moore and John Phillips for Left Bank Pictures, and Sam Hoyle for Sky.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is currently filming in Sweden and Lithuania. It will premiere on Sky in 2027 and, hopefully, have an American distributor by then.
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