Director David Fincher’s adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a sizeable hit when it opened last December, but the film wasn’t the runaway box office success that some were expecting. It’s global take of $232 million was enough to justify an adaptation of author Steig Larsson’s sequel The Girl who Played with Fire, but development on the follow-up has been slow-going.

Fincher has yet to officially attach himself as the director of Fire, and rumblings of head-butting between the director and Sony during the production of Dragon Tattoo didn’t exactly make Fincher’s return for the sequel a sure thing. However, in a recent interview Fincher revealed that he’s still very much mulling over a return to the world of Lisbeth Salander. Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

In an interview with The Art of Title (via The Playlist), Fincher was asked what he’s doing next:

“Well, [I’m] trying to figure out a sequel to Dragon Tattoo. We’ve got to be able to make it our own thing.”

The director is currently busy working on the 2013 Netflix series House of Cards, for which he directed the first two episodes. Though initially Fincher and Co. expressed interest in filming the two Dragon Tattoo sequels back-to-back, the mixed reception to the first film looks to have altered their plans.

One of the chief complaints about Fincher’s Dragon Tattoo was that it adhered too closely to the book, and with the Swedish films already out there it seemed a bit pointless. It sounds like he may be working with screenwriter Steven Zaillian on finding a way to make the follow-up their “own thing.”

Many had pegged the big-budget 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea remake as Fincher’s next feature film, but Disney may have second thoughts about greenlighting a large-scale, CG-heavy epic in the wake of John Carter. Fincher may have a better shot at doing his iteration of 20,000 Leagues if Gore Verbinski’s very expensive The Lone Ranger is a big success.

So, while Fincher hasn’t yet committed to his next feature film project, it sounds like he definitely hasn’t taken The Girl Who Played with Fire off the table just yet. As he puts the finishing touches on House of Cards, hopefully we hear firm word sooner rather than later.