MGM lost the rights to make Tomb Raider movies after a sequel to the 2018 film fell apart. According to a report from The Wrap, multiple Hollywood studios are currently engaged in a bidding battle for the license.
MGM must commit to the sequel by May if it wants to retain the rights to Tomb Raider movie rights. However, it missed the chance. It’s easy to see why MGM didn’t make a sequel considering that the 2018 Tomb Raider movie grossed $274 million globally.
Alicia Vikander, the actress who played Lara Croft, has decided not to be involved in the next film. According to The Wrap, whatever the next film is (if one exists), it will be a “complete restart” without any casting commitments.
It’s likely all good. 2018’s Tomb Raider was a tediously brilliant piece that would have been even more fun if it had been worse. . Instead, we got two hours of Vikander hopping around in the jungle. It was an experience that made your brain forget everything it knew. It was fine. That’s all I can say. You can say what you want about Angelina Jolie’s films, but I still have them 20 years later.
Another game property that was acquired by the Embracer Group this May is Tomb Raider. The Embracer Group’s plans for the series include spinoffs, remakes, remasters, and transmedia projects. It is possible that Embracer’s plans partly sparked this bidding war over movie rights. It isn’t easy to see why so many film studios would throw money at a license that has been so silent for four years if Embracer wasn’t about to give it life.
Although Tomb Raider has not been in the news recently, Crystal Dynamics announced in April that a new game was in development for Unreal Engine 5. However, this was just before Embracer bought it so plans might have changed. Embracer has stated that it plans to produce lots of Tomb Raider merchandise, so there is every chance the work is still moving along.
