All Articles: Tomb Raider

Alicia Vikander won an Oscar earlier this year for role in The Danish Girl, but she’s also signed on to pick up Lara Croft’s dual pistols in the next Tomb Raider film, which The Hollywood Reporter says will open on March 16, 2018.

The untitled reboot will be directed by Roar Uthaug, and won’t feature Angelina Jolie, who previously played the adventurer in 2001’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and 2003’s Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life.

In addition to The Danish Girl, Vikander is best known for her appearance in Ex Machina, as well as a co-starring role in last year’s The Man From UNCLE. She’ll return to theaters later this month as a CIA agent pursuing Matt Damon in Jason Bourne.

Angelina Jolie followed up her Oscar win for Girl, Interuppted by taking on the role of Lara Croft in 2001’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. After attempting to restart the game-to-film franchise for a few years now, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that producers are finally ready to christen another Oscar-winning Lara Croft.

Alicia Vikander, who won Best Supporting Actress this year for her performance in The Danish Girl, will soon slip on the character’s signature accent for the untitled reboot. And like 2013’s Tomb Raider, the new film will depict a young and inexperienced Lara on her first adventure. Roar Uthaug, who recently helmed the Norwegian disaster flick The Wave, will direct Vikander for her first tomb raid.

Daisy Ridley, the previous frontrunner for the role of Lara Croft, will have to be content with her starring role in Star Wars Episode VIII, which is now filming at Pinewood Studios in England.

Angelina Jolie’s portrayal of famed video game explorer Lara Croft is iconic. But, if you can believe it, almost a generation has gone by since the first Tomb Raider film and a reboot of the film franchise has been in the works since 2011. While there hasn’t been much done in the way of pre-production (there’s no script yet), Daisy Ridley told The Hollywood Reporter on Sunday at the Empire Awards that she has been (to use Hollywood lingo) “in talks” to potentially headline the new movie. That’s right, Rey from Star Wars: The Force Awakens might be jumping into another popular franchise. Not bad for an actor who until recently was relatively unknown.

Her costar in The Force Awakens, John Boyega (maybe better known as rogue Stormtrooper Finn), even endorsed the idea of Ridley portraying Lara Croft after allegedly playing the most recent Tomb Raider game, 2015’s Rise of the Tomb Raider, and immediately envisioning her in the role. “She should be [Lara Croft],” he said Sunday.

While this is pretty cool news, keep in mind it’s all still up in the air. Ridley stressed she had not been offered the role, so fans of hers should keep their fingers crossed but maybe not hold their collective breath just yet. Things in Hollywood do have a way of falling apart even when there are more concrete plans on the horizon. I’m still holding out for a Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man 4. (Not really, but you know. It’s one of the great tragedies of recent cinema, is it not? I ask you!).