Lisbeth Salander is a mysterious character in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo whose age can be somewhat difficult to determine. She is the title character in the 2011 David Fincher movie, which is based on the 2005 Stieg Larsson novel of the same name, which was originally written in Swedish under the title Män som hatar kvinnor, or Men Who Hate Women. Larsson died before the novel’s publication, but he had already completed work on a full Salander trilogy, following her exploits in 2006’s The Girl Who Played with Fire and 2007’s The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest.

Salander has been featured in a variety of onscreen adaptations of the franchise. First, the trilogy was adapted into Swedish-language movies starring Noomi Rapace in the role. While Fincher adapted the original novel in English with Rooney Mara as Lisbeth, his version of Dragon Tattoo never received a direct sequel despite grossing $239.3 million worldwide. The movie was later followed by 2018’s The Girl in the Spider’s Web starring Claire Foy (adapting the David Lagercrantz sequel novel) and the upcoming Girl with the Dragon Tattoo TV show, which is in development with Amazon at the time of writing.

Lisbeth Salander Was 24 Years Old In The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

The Stieg Larsson Character Looks Younger Than Her Years

Although various Lisbeth Salander movies have seen the character portrayed at different ages, she is 24 during the events of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Her age is revealed in the original book in a description provided by her boss, Milton Security CEO Dragan Armansky. In a segment of the book written from his perspective, he describes Lisbeth, saying that “she was twenty-four, but she sometimes looked fourteen.” This description highlights the fact that her age can indeed be difficult to determine, even for the other characters in the book.

Production on the 2011 movie lasted from September 2010 through June 2011. Because Girl with the Dragon Tattoo star Rooney Mara was born on April 17, 1985, this means that the Social Network actor would have been 25 at the time that principal photography kicked off, though she turned 26 by the time it wrapped. This places her almost exactly in the proper age range for the character, though there was about a year’s gap between her and Lisbeth Salander.

Lisbeth & Mikael Blomkvist’s Age Gap In The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Explained

There Is More Than A Decade And A Half Between The 2011 Movie’s Main Characters

The age of Lisbeth Salander’s investigating partner and love interest Mikael Blomkvist is also laid out clearly in the book, via a report compiled by Salander herself, which says that he “was born on January 18, 1960, which makes him forty-two years old.” At the time he played the role in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Mara’s co-star Daniel Craig was exactly 42, though he had turned 43 by the time they wrapped. This means that the age gap between the characters is 18 years, while the gap between the stars playing them is roughly 17 years.