A FOLLOW-UP to “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” will begin filming in September.

    But there will be no return for the stars of the 2011 film, Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig.

    Director Fede Alvarez is on the look-out for an entirely new cast for “The Girl in the Spider’s Web,” which is due for release in October 2018.

    Alvarez, who also directed thriller “Don’t Breathe,” said: “We’ve got a great script and now comes the most fun part — finding our Lisbeth.”

    So who could be in the running to replace Rooney as punk super-hacker Lisbeth Salander?

    Variety is reporting that Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson might be in the running.

    David Fincher, who directed the U.S. adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s original novel in 2011, said at the time that Johansson had done a “great audition” for the main part in the first U.S. film, but that audiences would find her too distracting.

    Jane Levy, who starred in Alvarez’s “Don’t Breathe” and “Evil Dead,” could also be a contender.

    Stieg Larsson wrote about Lisbeth Salander in three novels — “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” “The Girl Who Played With Fire” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest.”

    He died of a heart attack in 2004, but the series was continued by David Lagercrantz with “The Girl in the Spider’s Web,” which was published in 2015.

    Columbia has chosen Lagercrantz’s novel to adapt for the second English-language film.

    (SD-Agencies)