Tomb Raider: why there will never be a 2nd film with Alicia Vikander


Tomb Raider with Alicia Vikander is broadcast tonight on France 2. What about the sequel announced for many years?

In March 2018, Lara Croft returned to the big screen as Swedish actress Alicia Vikander. Directed by Roar Uthaug, Tomb Raider is the third film adaptation of the homonymous video game series.

This is a reboot of the saga composed of the films Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, the cradle of life (2003), in which Angelina Jolie held the title role.

In this film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Lara Croft, 21, has no plans or ambitions. Daughter of an eccentric explorer who has been missing for seven years, this rebellious and independent young woman refuses to take over her father’s empire. Convinced that he is not dead, she sets sail for the destination where her father was last seen: the legendary tomb on a mythical island off the coast of Japan.

Despite a very mixed success at the global box office ($274 million for an estimated budget of nearly $100 million), MGM quickly announced a sequel directed by filmmaker Misha Green, creator of Lovecraft Country.

The working title is even announced: Tomb Raider: Obsidian. The latter is a reference to the video game Shadow of the Tomb Raiderin which an obsidian blade turns out to be an important plot element.

But the Covid pandemic and the takeover of the mythical studio by Amazon put a brake on the project.

MGM

Alicia Vikander in “Tomb Raider”

In August 2021, Alicia Vikander confided to the magazine EW to be ready to return to the role, but that this decision was not up to her. “With the takeover of MGM by Amazon, I have no idea. Now, that’s a bit of politics. I think Misha [Green] and I are ready, so it’s kind of in someone else’s hands, to be honest. But I would love to find Lara.”

But in May 2022 the ax fell: MGM lost the exclusive rights to the Tomb Raider license. The company did not wish to keep them by making a new offer. Alicia Vikander loses the role of Lara Croft. The sequel to Tomb Raider is therefore cancelled.

The rights to the license are now held by the Swedish video game giant Embracer Group. No announcement of a new film adapted from the video game franchise has been made to date. But a TV series written and produced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag, Indiana Jones 5) is in development at Amazon.



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