Lara Croft is gearing up to pull on her dirty tank top and shoot some arrows on the big screen again. MGM has announced that it’s tapped Misha Green to write and direct the next Tomb Raider movie, which will see Alicia Vikander return to the role after she rebooted the franchise in 2018. This will be Green’s first feature film, but she broke out this year with her smash hit HBO show Lovecraft Country, which she acted as showrunner and producer for.
This definitely adds a bit of credibility to the franchise as the first film felt more like a budget take with schlock director Roar Uthaug helming the movie and the screenplay feeling pretty basic. It also feels like a step up from Ben Wheatley, who was originally tapped to direct the sequel, though Wheatley has some creative films under his belt. MGM is looking for successful franchises right now as the industry consolidates and Bond seems to never be releasing. Tomb Raider could definitely be a winner if they put the effort and talent into making the movie. Green seems to be an acknowledgment of this and could make something special alongside Vikander, who deserved a better movie for a character she seems to care about.
The Tomb Raider movie sequel was originally set to release in May of this year, but that is obviously not happening both because of COVID-19 and, now, because Misha Green is clearly just getting started on it. Despite Vikander’s return to the role, it will be interesting to see if they treat this film as a soft reboot given what is sure to be a long gap between the films and a new creator at the helm.
