While her star has risen to great heights during the past couple of months, Alicia Vikander could use something most actors chase their whole careers: a franchise where they get to be front and center. She just might get her wish, as she's taken the lead in the race to replace Rooney Mara in Sony's upcoming adaptation of The Girl Who Played With Fire.
According to a recent report, Sony is anxious to get the Millenium franchise back on track with a lower budgeted follow up to David Fincher's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. While the initial film didn't exactly set the box office on fire, the property is still a hot commodity in Hollywood – especially with The Girl In The Spider's Web extending the franchise's lifespan past the original trilogy authored by late writer Stieg Larsson. With her career still blooming, and her pay scale still within their tastes, The Wrap has named Vikander as an apparent favorite among franchise producers Scott Rudin and Amy Pascal.
If you were to try and pinpoint the reasons why Vikander is such a highly regarded contender for the role, you're probably best off watching her performance as Ava in Ex Machina. With a cold demeanor, and the ability to exact her revenge with no compunction and even less regard for consequence, Alicia Vikander makes for a perfect candidate to play Lisbeth Salander in The Girl Who Played With Fire. Her robotic role alone has shown that she acting chops to convey the flat affect crusading that both Mara, as well as Noomi Rapace before her have previously engaged in. Though if you're a little shaky on how good of a fit she could be, check out the clip from David Fincher's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo below:
Another interesting turn in the story of Sony's plans to continue production on The Girl Who Played With Fire is the fact that the studio is also seeking out a replacement for Daniel Craig's Mikael Blomkvist, as David Fincher does not look like he'll be taking the director's chair for this round. While The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo wasn't the best David Fincher film, it at the very least had plenty of the director's signature style to spare. Imagining an actress as talented as Alicia Vikander teaming up with a director like Fincher is too good of a scenario to pass up lightly, but considering the middling success of the previous installment, the studio is probably looking for a clean slate with the next film.
Alicia Vikander would make a great anchor to The Girl Who Played With Fire, but at this moment there is no official movement on the casting of the next Lisbeth Salander. Still, it's not a bad time to have her name in front of the pack, and her upcoming roles in Tulip Fever and the next Bourne sequel will only help to fuel the flames of speculation. When we hear any official word on whether or not Vikander is officially selected, or even interested in being in the running, you'll hear it from us right here!
