Nearly two decades after Angelina Jolie portrayed video game heroine Lara Croft in Paramount's Tomb Raider film, Academy Award winner Alicia Vikander assumed the role in a reboot from MGM and Warner Bros. Pictures. While her take on Tomb Raider performed softer than expected at the U.S. box office, MGM moved forward with plans for a sequel that Vikander says she hopes to begin filming by 2021.
MGM had scheduled the Tomb Raider sequel to be released on March 19, 2021, with hopes of beginning production in early 2020. Kill List and Free Fire helmer Ben Wheatley signed on to direct the sequel from a script written by his wife and frequent collaborator Amy Jump.
However, the Tomb Raider sequel is one of the many projects to face delays in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. "The plan was for us to start making one this year, of course, due to the [pandemic] situation, that's now very different," Vikander said during an interview with Good Morning America. The actress noted that conversations about her returning to the role of Lara Croft are ongoing, saying, "we're still in discussions about it, so I hope we can probably get to it next year."
Directed by Roar Uthaug from a script penned by Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Alastair Siddons, the 2018 Tomb Raider film was inspired primarily by the 2013 video game reboot that reimagined the origins of Lara Croft. The story centered on Vikander's Croft as she embarks on a perilous journey to the island of Yamatai in hopes of discovering the truth behind the disappearance of her father, Richard Croft. The reboot set up a sequel by concluding with Lara discovering that the sinister organization behind her father's disappearance, Trinity, is a subsidiary of Croft Holdings and that her father's former business partner, Ana Miller, might be one of their agents.
Earlier reports suggested the sequel will borrow elements from the Rise of the Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider video games. Elements from Rise of the Tomb Raider were also incorporated into the original Tomb Raider film reboot.
Of course, Tomb Raider was not without its detractors, most of whom probably wouldn't be upset if a sequel didn't move forward. On the other hand, while feature film adaptations of video games haven't fared well in the past, Detective Pikachu and Sonic the Hedgehog are generally viewed as steps in the right direction, so perhaps a Tomb Raider sequel can learn from past mistakes and continue the relatively upward trend.
Tomb Raider is now available on Amazon Prime Video.
Source: Good Morning America