Alicia Vikander no longer Lara Croft, as Tomb Raider movie series sits in limbo
Bidding war for rights begins.
Things are not looking great for the sequel to 2018's Tomb Raider film adaptation, which starred Alicia Vikander as a young Lara Croft searching for her father on the island of Yamati.
A new report from The Wrap has revealed that following its buyout by Amazon, MGM has lost the rights to the Tomb Raider films. The studio reportedly had until May of this year to move ahead with a sequel, but that ship has now sailed.
As a result, a "host of Hollywood movie studios" are currently making bids on the rights to the film, with insiders revealing that this has resulted in Alicia Vikander being removed from the project.
Instead, any future Tomb Raider films will be a "complete reboot", and, as it currently stands, there are "no casting or director commitments" attached.
Earlier this month, Vikander spoke about her return to the role, admitting that "politics" were standing in the way of any development on the sequel.
"It's kind of in somebody else's hands, to be honest," she shared.
However, at this point, Vikander still appeared to be set to portray Lara Croft once again, with the actress discussing then director Misha Green's readiness for the film. "[We have both] been ready," she stated.
Elsewhere in the tomb-riddled world of Lara Croft, earlier this year Crystal Dynamics announced that its next game in the series is being made in Unreal Engine 5. This will be the first outing for Lara since the developer was brought by Embracer as part of a huge deal with Square Enix.
Little else is known about this future installment, however we do know that Days Gone director Jeff Ross has joined the studio as a design director (so, Lara on a motorbike if you please good sir).
More recently, former Call of Duty developer Belinda Garcia has joined the Tomb Raider team as a game writer/narrative designer.
Meanwhile, Embracer has said its sees "great potential" in its newly aquired IP, and has hinted that some remakes of older games in the series may well come our way in the future.
But while all this goes on in the background, fellow fans of Lara's also have an animated Tomb Raider series coming to Netflix to look forward to. This series will focus on the events that follow after the reboot's conclusion in 2018's Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
Or, you could dive into the Tomb Raider cookbook and whip yourself up a batch of Lara's favourite beans on toast to fuel you while we wait for more news on the future of the films and games.