David Fincher’s celebrated 2011 thriller The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was supposed to be the acclaimed director’s first and only film trilogy. Fincher, who is known for his multiple outstanding movies such as Se7en, Zodiac, Gone Girl, and The Social Network, is still making great films such as 2023’s The Killer starring Michael Fassbender. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which stars Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, and Stellan Skarsgård, is often considered one of David Fincher’s best movies.

Based on the Millennium book trilogy written by Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was Fincher’s immediate follow-up to his Oscar-winning film The Social Network (2010) and also won the Academy Award for Best Achievement in Film Editing. It was released on December 21, 2011, and is currently streaming on Max. Amazon is developing a Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series with showrunner Veena Sud, although Fincher is not reportedly involved.

David Fincher Had Originally Planned To Make 2 Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Sequels

Fincher still has never made a movie trilogy

Upon the 2011 release of his The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo adaptation, Fincher announced that he was planning to adapt the other two novels of the Millennium book trilogy by Larsson, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest. Both had already been adapted for film but Fincher was planning to expand on his The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo adaptation and retain lead actors Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig, who played Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist, respectively.

Although Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a critical success, its box office wasn’t necessarily impressive by Sony’s standards at the time, earning just under $240 million worldwide against a production budget of $90 million. With Daniel Craig at the height of his 007 fame and Fincher reportedly wanting to increase the budget for his anticipated The Girl Who Played with Fire movie, Sony ultimately decided to pull the plug on Fincher’s budding franchise, which would have been the first of its kind.

Why Fede Álvarez Made The Girl in the Spider’s Web Instead

Alvarez could make the film for less than Fincher’s sequel

Fede Alvarez emerged as an up-and-coming horror director after Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo came out. He rose to prominence with his feature film debut, 2013’s Evil Dead, and 2016’s Don’t Breathe, both of which were made with small production budgets. Sony likely did not want to reinvest in Fincher’s adaptation of the franchise, which would have undoubtedly cost more given Daniel Craig’s height in popularity as James Bond and Fincher’s own request for a larger budget.

Sony tapped Alvarez to make The Girl in the Spider’s Web, the fourth book of the Millennium series and the first by a new author, for $43 million. Still, Sony’s attempt to cut costs backfired as Alvarez’s adaptation failed at the box office, earning just $35 million worldwide. Of course, hindsight is seen in 20/20, but the $240 million gross of Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo doesn’t seem like as much of a “flop” as Sony made it out to be at the time, especially in today’s box office.