After starting out as a video game series, Tomb Raider made the jump to movies last decade with Angelina Jolie playing its lead heroine, Lara Croft. Her big screen adventures ended after two movies, but 13 years later, now Lara Croft is preparing to head back to theaters. After several actresses being rumored for the role, the reboot has finally found its new iteration of the action hero in Alicia Vikander.
The casting was announced by The Hollywood Reporter, saying that Vikander will lead MGM’s Tomb Raider reboot, which will follow a "young and untested Lara Croft" as she goes on her first adventure. The new movie is being directed by The Wave’s Roar Uthaug, and Graham King will produce. Although Vikander has made a name for herself in recent years with movies like Ex Machina and The Danish Girl, this is her first foray into the world of franchises.
Although Vikander has appeared in a number of well-known movies, like The Fifth Estate and Seventh Son, 2015 was the year when her fame propelled. She first appeared as the android Ava in Ex Machina, appearing alongside Star Wars: The Force Awakens stars Domhnall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac. That summer, she played Gaby Teller in The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and she capped off the year as Gerda Wegener in The Danish Girl, and that performance, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She’s obviously proven she has tremendous acting chops, so making the jump to the new Tomb Raider movie is an excellent way for her get her action hero on. It was reported at one point that Daisy Ridley might play Lara Croft, but she has enough on her plate with the new Star Wars movies and other projects.
Taking inspiration from the 2013 Tomb Raider video game, the movie reboot will follow a young Lara Croft as she’s just starting her adventures as a badass archaeologist looking for priceless artifacts and relics around the world. Roar Uthaug has also said he wants this version of Lara Croft to feel to feel like a "real human being," so we should expect to get to know Alicia Vikander’s version on a deeper level while she's trying to survive these crazy situations. She’s not at the same experience level as Angelina Jolie’s was, so while we will see her fighting her way through various challenges, it’s not going to be with the same ease. It would also be cool to get some insight into her personal life when she’s not out in the field.
The Tomb Raider reboot is rumored to hit theaters on October 6, 2017, but we’ll keep you updated on a more official time frame. As for Vikander, her upcoming releases later this year include Tulip Fever and Jason Bourne.
