Alicia Vikander, popular for her performance in "Ex Machina" and her Academy Award-winning role in "The Danish Girl," has been officially cast as Lara Croft in the upcoming "Tomb Raider" movie. As per a report from Deadline, she will be portraying a younger, less experienced Lara going through her very first adventure.
According to Variety, the actress had always been the first choice for the film and was able to beat other contenders, including "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" star Daisy Ridley, Cara Delevingne, Emilia Clarke from "Game of Thrones" and Saoirse Ronan.
The film will be an official reboot, having nothing to do with the two films previously starring Angelina Jolie, and will be produced by MGM, GK Films and Warner Bros. Pictures. Norwegian director Roar Uthaug, known for helming the critically acclaimed disaster movie "The Wave," will be directing the film.
As stated in the report, this will be another critical role for Vikander who has also been able to garner a spot in the upcoming "Jason Bourne" and the romantic thriller "Submergence" where she stars opposite James McAvoy.
It is undetetermined what the plot of the reboot film will focus on but many fans speculate that it will draw heavily from the 2013 reboot game "Tomb Raider," which sees a young and untested Lara Croft lead an expedition to the lost Japanese island of Yamatai.
An accident occurs and Lara must struggle to save her friends from an ancient cult residing in the island. It is later discovered that these cultists are all ship wreck survivors, descendant's of the island's original inhabitants, and more. All of them worship a goddess known as Himiko.
"Tomb Raider" has been in development for some time, following GK Films' purchase of the film rights from Square-Enix back in 2013, around the same time the reboot video game was released. Graham King himself will serve as executive producer for the new movie.
"Tomb Raider" has no official release date at the time of this writing.
