Skip to main content

Alicia Vikander steps into Lara Croft’s boots in first official ‘Tomb Raider’ photos

tomb raider alicia vikander lara croft 01
This week has been a big one for fans of the Tomb Raider franchise, as we now have our first official look at Academy Award winner Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft.

Warner Bros. Pictures and MGM released a trio of photos featuring Vikander as the famous protagonist of the blockbuster game and movie franchise, teasing the 2018 premiere of the new Tomb Raider movie.

The new photos are the first studio-sanctioned images of Vikander as Lara Croft, following the release of several photos from various fan sites in February.

Directed by Roar Uthaug (The Wave) from a script by Transformers: The Last Knight screenwriter Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Tomb Raider takes the character back to her early years and offers a new origin story for the cinematic version of the character.

The official synopsis for the film reads as follows:

“Lara Croft is the fiercely independent daughter of an eccentric adventurer who vanished when she was scarcely a teen. Now a young woman of 21 without any real focus or purpose, Lara navigates the chaotic streets of trendy East London as a bike courier, barely making the rent, and takes college courses, rarely making it to class. Determined to forge her own path, she refuses to take the reins of her father’s global empire just as staunchly as she rejects the idea that he’s truly gone. Advised to face the facts and move forward after seven years without him, even Lara can’t understand what drives her to finally solve the puzzle of his mysterious death.

“Going explicitly against his final wishes, she leaves everything she knows behind in search of her dad’s last-known destination:Aa fabled tomb on a mythical island that might be somewhere off the coast of Japan. But her mission will not be an easy one; just reaching the island will be extremely treacherous. Suddenly, the stakes couldn’t be higher for Lara, who — against the odds and armed with only her sharp mind, blind faith and inherently stubborn spirit — must learn to push herself beyond her limits as she journeys into the unknown. If she survives this perilous adventure, it could be the making of her, earning her the name Tomb Raider.”

Along with Vikander as Lara Croft, the film features Dominic West (The Affair, 300) as Lara’s father, Daniel Wu (Into the Badlands) as the captain of the ship transporting Lara on her quest, and Emmy-nominated Justified and The Hateful Eight actor Walton Goggins as the film’s primary villain.

Tomb Raider hits theaters March 16, 2018.

Rick Marshall
A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…
The best animated movies on Netflix right now
A cat points a bat at another cat in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.

While Nimona has been the big Netflix original animated film of the summer, it's far from the only addition to the lineup. Netflix is making sure that animation fans are well served in August with the first two Despicable Me movies, Bee Movie, and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2. However, Netflix's biggest recent addition is one of 2022's biggest animated hits: DreamWorks' Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.

Netflix's deals with Sony Pictures Animation, DreamWorks Animation, and Universal Pictures have given it a powerhouse library of animated films. And that's before we even get into Netflix's impressive originals like The Sea Beast. To help you keep track of what's new and what you can stream right now, we've updated our list of the best animated movies on Netflix.

Read more
From Barbarella to Howard the Duck: the 7 cheesiest sci-fi movies ever
Howard the Duck in "Howard the Duck."

The science-fiction genre has a vast smorgasbord of cheesy films stretching way back to the early days of cinema. Such pictures are known for their weird stories, unrealistic dialogue, low-budget productions, and exaggerated acting.

While many of these films have been panned by critics and audiences alike, some of them have garnered success for being "so bad, they're good." Whether or not they have been held up by a dedicated fan base, these seven movies stand out as the cream of the cheesy sci-fi crop.
Flash Gordon (1980)

Read more
10 best Batman stories ever, ranked
Batman Year One cover

Bounding from rooftop to rooftop, the Dark Knight never misses his mark. He operates like a well-oiled machine tracking bad guys, beating them to a bloody pulp, and throwing them in the slammer - or Arkham Asylum should they be anyone of Gotham's notable supervillains. As the brainchild of Bob Kane and Bill Finger, an artist and writer duo, Batman has been pounding the pavement of Gotham ever since his debut in Detective Comics in 1939. He's undergone a number of changes since his original conception ultimately becoming the brooding powerhouse we know today.

Most understand the basic tenants of Batman these days. His parents were murdered before his young eyes leading him down this path of personal vindication and pursuit of justice. Batman, in most iterations, never resorts to killing -- the one crime that separates his outlaw vigilante operations from the real criminals. Of course, it wasn't always that way. In Batman's earliest days, he had no qualms about ending the lives of baddies on the streets. Even now, some stories and films like Tim Burton's gothic take on the character depict him looking on with cold and uncaring glares as criminals meet their end. Regardless, Batman is mostly a well-established hero simply seeking justice and there are countless stories of the Caped Crusader. Let's take a look at the best among them.
10. Hush

Read more