Alicia Vikander's Tomb Raider sequel lands release date, Free Fire director
Warner Bros. and MGM have excavated a release date for Alicia Vikander‘s upcoming Tomb Raider movie sequel.
EW has learned that the action-adventure tentpole will hit screens on March 19, 2021 — the same weekend frame in which its predecessor opened in 2018 — with Free Fire and High-Rise helmer Ben Wheatley taking over the director’s chair from Norwegian filmmaker Roar Uthaug (The Wave).
Vikander is set to reprise her role as iconic globe-trotting explorer Lara Croft, the video game character who became a global phenomenon at the center of the first Tomb Raider title in 1996. The series went on to become one of the most successful video game franchises of all time, spawning 19 playable titles and, prior to Uthaug’s 2018’s iteration, a pair of profitable movie adaptations starring Angelina Jolie (2001’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and 2003’s Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life).
The 2018 Tomb Raider movie — an origin-style cinematic reboot that charted Croft’s rise from wealthy heiress to hard-edged action heroine while searching for her missing father (Dominic West) — earned a modest $58.3 million domestically but a massive $216.4 million overseas for a global haul of $274.7 million on a $94 million budget.
Production on the sequel (with Free Fire writer Amy Jump penning the script and Graham King and Elizabeth Cantillon producing) is reportedly set to begin in early 2020, with the film landing in theaters approximately one year later. Further casting and plot details have yet to be announced.
Deadline first reported news of Wheatley’s involvement.
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