Once (or even twice) apparently isn’t enough when it comes to Stieg Larsson‘s “Millennium” trilogy. Variety reports that Amazon MGM Studios has a new series adaptation of Larsson’s nordic noir book series in the works; moviegoers may better know them for “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,” which David Fincher did his own take of back in 2011 as part of his lean, mean, airport paperback adaptation phase that also included 2014’s “Gone Girl.”
READ MORE: David Fincher Is Proud Of ‘Dragon Tattoo’ But Admits The Film Is “A Swing & A Miss”
Amazon/MGM first announced their new adaptation was in development in May 2020, but without a showrunner attached. Now that’s changed.   Veena Sud will lead the series, and she’s not a poor choice. Her claim to TV fame is developing “The Killing” with Joel Kinnaman, also based on a nordic noir TV series, “Forbrydelsen.” That show ran for four seasons (three on AMC and one on Netflix, and racked up six Emmy nods and one Golden Globe nod in 2011.
But what’s surprising about this news is how Amazon/MGM plans to make Larsson’s original trilogy into a TV series. When news first broke on it three years ago, the plan was to do an original Lisbeth Salander story for the show. And that would make sense, since a Swedish-Danish film trilogy based on Larrson’s books came out in 2009 with Noomi Rapace and Michael Nyqvist. Since then, Fincher also made his aforementioned adaptation of “Dragon Tattoo” two years later, with “The Girl In The Spider’s Web,” based on the fourth book in the “Millennium” series by David Lagerkrantz, arriving in 2018. Critical response to that one was pretty poor, so it’s safe to assume Lisbeth Salander’s pop culture popularity has been played out.
Or maybe not, and Amazon/MGM and Sud have a fresh take on Larrson’s dark heroine. Maybe take a look at Sud’s recent work beyond “The Killing” to see what she has in mind for her series. There’s “Seven Seconds” for Netflix, about police violence and racism in America, with Regina King nabbing a Lead Actress Emmy for the show. Then there’s “The Lie,” which Sud wrote and directed for Blumhouse. And there’s also her film/series hybrid “The Stranger” Sud made for Quibi. Sud worked on CBS‘s longrunning police procedural “Cold Case,” proving she’s comfortable in the territory of Larsson’s trilogy.
In any case, Sud will need to find a new actress to play Lisbeth Salander after Rapace, Rooney Mara, and Claire Foy. And who knows? Maybe Sud will look at later books in the “Millennium” series beyond Larsson’s original work. Lagercrantz wrote two other novels after “Spider’s Web,” and then Karin Smirnoff took over the series in 2022 with “The Girl In The Eagle’s Talons.” And, at least in books, Lisbeth Salander is still wildly popular: the “Millennium” series has sold over 100 million copies worldwide.
Whatever happens, Sud is a strong choice by Amazon MGM Studios for this project. Let’s see what develops from it.
