For those who are watching how long it took for news of the sequel to Tomb Raider to appear, this waiting time may increase slightly after MGM Studios just lost the rights to Lara Croft’s film inclusions, which also means that Alicia Vikander will not play the role. in the future.
The latest film adaptation of the Tomb Raider franchise was the 2018 film starring Vikander, produced by Graham King and MGM, and directed by Roar Utaug, who subsequently earned $ 274.7 million with a budget of $ 94 million. However, due to the fact that MGM did not take the opportunity to retain the rights to the Tomb Raider film adaptation, at least by giving the green light to the sequel (similar to Sony and Spider-Man) until May of this year, the studio will lose these rights, which are now put up for sale to the best buyer available in Hollywood.
Related: Tomb Raider: Every Version of Lara Croft, Ranked
According to The Wrap, given that MGM is now completely separate from the franchise, any new tomb raider films in the future will act as a brand new reboot for Lara Croft, just as Vikander’s casting had nothing to do with the two films starring Angelina Jolie. in the early 2000s. For the sake of clarification, Square Enix parted with the rights to the Tomb Raider film adaptation back in 2011, when King took over the property of his own production company GK Films, which is now tasked with negotiating any future deals.
Although Tomb Raider 2018 received mixed or slightly positive reviews when it was released, it was mostly seen as part of a broader wave of improvements in video game adaptations; in particular, Vikander’s portrayal of Lara Croft was very welcome as a more accurate representation of Square’s own 2013 Tomb Raider reboot. Vikander.
Earlier this year, Swedish tech giant Embracer Group took over Tomb Raider video game developer, Crystal Dynamics, as part of a larger acquisition by Square Enix, although, at least on the gaming front, the holding is not shy about planning for the future of Tomb. Raider sequels, remakes, remasters or spin-offs. At the moment, the only confirmed game is to migrate Tomb Raider to Unreal Engine 5 to explore many of the settings that Lara Croft fans would like to see her in.
Unlike in the past, Lara Croft now has some competition in games, as Horizon’s Eloy has become a new and equally impressive female icon in video games.
