‘Tomb Raider’ Reboot Cast, Updates: Alicia Vikander’s Lara Croft Based on 2013 Video Game Reboot of Franchise

‘Tomb Raider’ reboot will be based on the 2013 video game of the same name. It stars Alicia Vikander as a young Lara Croft who embarks on her first archeological expedition on a mysterious island.

According to IGN, director Raur Uthaug’s upcoming live-action adaptation of the popular video game of the same name is inspired by the game’s 2013 reboot of the franchise. Vikander, who will play the lead protagonist Lara Croft, promised that the reboot will be a different take from the first live-action films starring Angelina Jolie.

The 2013 video game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix was intended as a reboot of the ‘Tomb Raider’ franchise and followed the origins of Lara Croft. It was released on March 2013 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows and later released for OS X and Linux on January 2014 and April 2016, respectively. The game is the tenth title in the franchise following 2008’s ‘Tomb Raider: Underworld’.

The original game is set on Lara’s island Yamatai. Young Lara is yet to hone her skills as an expert explorer but is forced to save her friends who are being hunted down by an evil cult. The game was well received upon release.

Vikander hinted, “The difference is that you clearly see from the previous games and what they were aiming on making as a difference, with making it a bit more of an origin story… That is something I think that we’re trying to have as our main thing, to show the journey of becoming what we know her as: Lara Croft."

She also expressed her excitement over taking on a fan favorite character. She admitted, "For me, Tomb Raider is about the excitement of working on a project with a female character that I again in one way have a relationship with. I played the game when I was a kid. I was running around in that house and jumping in the pool and doing all the action -- and then of course Angelina Jolie made her into an icon with her films… That was also something that I thought of when I first heard that they were going to make a Tomb Raider film, and then I found out that they were going to make a film based on the rebooted game from 2013. I think what we’re now going to do is we’re aiming to do something very fresh and something new that can stand on its own two legs."

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. scheduled the upcoming reboot for a March 16, 2018 release in 3D and Imax. The date was initially reserved for an untitled DC film.

‘Tomb Raider’ is an upcoming action-adventure and fantasy film intended as the live-action adaptation of the 2013 video game of the same name. It is directed by Roar Uthaug with a screenplay penned by Geneva Robertson-Dworet. It will follow the adventures of a young Lara Croft as she sets off on her first ever archeological expedition on a mysterious island.

The first live-action adaptations from the early 2000s starred Jolie in the lead role and received mixed to generally negative reviews from critics. ‘Lara: Croft Tomb Raider’ earned $273.33 million worldwide on a budget of $94 million while ‘Lara Croft Tomb Rader: Cradle of Life’ earned $157.09 million worldwide on a budget of $90 million.