It’s been eight years since Lisbeth Salander last surfaced on the big screen as part of a big English-language adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Now she’s back in The Girl in the Spider’s Web (in theaters November 9; tickets now on sale) – this time portrayed by The Crown actress Claire Foy – in a more explosive story that centers on Salander and the complicated history she has with her own family. Spider’s Web is technically the fourth book in the series and the first from author David Lagercrantz, who took over penning the series following the death of original author Stieg Larsson.

So why skip the other two books and go straight to adapting the fourth? “You wouldn't understand a lot of the events of the second book if you haven't read the first one,” Spider’s Web director Fede Alvarez told Fandango. “It’s the same with the movie, and I think what was cool about this one is that it's kind of a fresh start in a way. You don't really need to have seen or read the books to enjoy the story - to really understand what's going on.”

With tickets now on sale for The Girl in the Spider’s Web (grab them right here), Fandango is pleased to debut this exclusive clip from the film, titled “Panic Room”, in which Lisbeth is confronted by masked villains as she finishes up a bath. Check it out.

 

Fandango spoke exclusively with Spider’s Web director Fede Alvarez and star Claire Foy about how this scene came to be.

"The biggest [challenge] there was, obviously apart from logistics of any scenes that involve guns and explosions and gunfire, but it was the first time Claire [Foy] was going to do something like that,” Alvarez revealed. “She had trained and prepared for that for a long time, and suddenly she was doing stunts and throwing herself against walls in a way she's never done. It was interesting to see how Claire, this very intellectual actor, who really wants to think and know exactly how things are going to go down, learned that day that that's not the way it works a lot of times with this action stuff."

“I loved shooting that scene because it was as real as humanly possible,” Foy told Fandango. “There was fire everywhere, smoke everywhere, and every part of the set was working, so it was completely three-hundred-and-sixty degrees. I could barely hear myself think above the noise of the water spraying down due to the fire alarm. So, very little acting was involved, really. I loved it. It was so immediate, and all the tech guys had got all their footage of the people coming into the house, so there was very little work required from me, really. I loved it. I just loved shooting that scene.”

“There's always a little hazard and chance that you never really know how it's going to go,” Alvarez added. “You hope you're going to fall in the right place. You hope when you jump you're going to land and make your mark and you hope that when the squib in the wall detonates, it's not going to hit you in the face. But you never know.”

“In the books, she becomes more physical,” Foy said, noting that Lisbeth kicks it up a notch in this film when it comes to her fighting skills. “She already did boxing, but with her wealth that she has now accumulated and with her freedom that she now has after the episodes in the final book, she now has free movement, and so she takes up kickboxing and things like that. She's still not a physically strong person, but she has what she's always had, which is her ability to fight to the bitter end. She'll try and defend herself. Even if she's overcome by someone much stronger, she'll still be trying to figure out a way to fight until the end.”

“That's part of the fun of making action movies, is they're kind of down and dirty and messy,” Alvarez said. “And I could see Claire laughing after a lot of the takes... really getting into the mood of understanding that she was in completely uncharted waters for her. That was really the fun part of that day - to put an actor into a situation that she's never been in before.”

 

The Girl in the Spider’s Web hits theaters on November 9, and tickets are on sale now. We’ll have more with Alvarez and Foy as we inch closer to release.