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The Crown's Claire Foy cast in Dragon Tattoo sequel

The Crown's Claire Foy has been confirmed as the new Lisbeth Salander in the sequel to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

The British star has been confirmed by Sony Pictures as Rooney Mara's replacement in the sequel to the 2011 hit.

Many names had been associated with the role which was first played by Noomi Rapace in the Swedish original, and then by Mara.

Actors such as Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson had been named as favourites when Sony first announced it was producing a sequel.

Mara and her co-star Daniel Craig both dropped out of the series, as did director David Fincher.

The new film, based on David Lagercrantz's book The Girl In The Spider's Web, will be helmed by Don't Breathe director Fede Alvarez.

"I couldn't be more thrilled about Claire taking the reins of the iconic Lisbeth Salander," Alvarez said.

"Claire is an incredible, rare talent who will inject a new and exciting life into Lisbeth. I can't wait to bring this new story to a worldwide audience, with Claire Foy at its centre."

The film will act as a follow-up with different actors, and will not try and retell the story from scratch.

The script has been penned by Steven Knight, creator of the hit TV show Peaky Blinders, who said Salander "is really the central character" in the new film.

"She's the whole thing. It's not really Mikael Blomkvist," he added.

There is yet no confirmation on who will succeed Daniel Craig as the hard-hitting journalist.

Foy was overlooked at the Emmys this week, losing her category of outstanding actress in a drama series to The Handmaid's Tale Elisabeth Moss.

She previously won the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for her portrayal of the Queen.

Her next film Breathe, alongside Andrew Garfield, opened in Toronto earlier this month to strong critical praise.

The Girl In The Spider's Web is the first book in the Millennium series not penned by Stieg Larson, the original writer.

Larson died in 2004 after writing the original trilogy, and Lagercrantz took over.

His second book, The Girl Who Takes An Eye For An Eye, has recently hit UK bookstores .