Prime Video's Tomb Raider show was put on pause recently after its star, Sophie Turner, was injured. Thankfully, Turner is reportedly doing fine, but that situation does illustrate that filming this action series, and playing Lara Croft in general, is not for the faint of heart. Few know that better than actress Camilla Luddington, who portrayed Croft and had some advice for the Game of Thrones actress on how to recover after hard days on set.

Luddington voiced and did motion capture for Lara Croft throughout three Tomb Raider Survivor games, and she told People she had some recovery tips for her colleague, Sophie Turner. It seems like heat is the key for those achy muscles, given what Luddington said when she ran through her post-stunt performance cooldown:

Being an action star isn't easy. Daniel Craig suffered a number of injuries on the sets of James Bond films, and who can forget Tom Cruise breaking his ankle while performing a wild Mission: Impossible stunt? It goes without saying that Turner needs to take care of her body while filming the Tomb Raider series, and I'd say that Luddington has some truly sage advice.

Given that Sophie Turner's injury was reported to be minor, filming resumed shortly after the situation occurred. Turner trained a lot for the role and seemed pretty confident in her strength, even telling Jimmy Fallon she could beat him up. With all signs pointing to Turner truly committing to the role of Lara, I'm excited to eventually watch her in action with a Prime Video subscription.

Tomb Raider has the potential to be another smash hit for Prime, which struck gold with its live-action adaptation of the video game Fallout. Provided the series can thrive in the same areas that the aforementioned sci-fi show has, mainly in being faithful in how it adapts the games, I think there's no reason to believe it could be just as big a hit, if not bigger.

For those who never played the games, the original Tomb Raider games center around Lara Croft, a cool archaeologist traveling the world in search of ancient artifacts. The series essentially has the same vibe as Indiana Jones, with the obvious difference being that the focus is on a younger female character. I'm crossing my fingers that this upcoming video game adaptation gives the same vibes as the games -- and that Sophie Turner remains safe and well rested as she continues to film it.

A release date has yet to be announced for the Tomb Raider series yet, but those with Prime Video will be able to check it out when it releases. In the meantime, there are plenty of video game adaptations to watch on both the big and small screens, and fans should seek them out.

Sophie Turner's casting as Lara Croft in the upcoming Tomb Raider series for Prime Video initially shocked fans, but her impressive transformation silenced doubts after her first look appeared in January. Now, the show faces uncertainty due to a persistent injury. Here’s what’s allegedly been happening with her behind the scenes.

Per reporting from The Sun, Turner threw herself into intense training to prepare for the role, sometimes for up to 8 hours a day. It was during this time that she discovered she had, as she described it, “a perpetual back problem” and recently retriggered the injury, throwing the production into disarray. A source close to the situation explained:

According to the report, the Game of Thrones alum will need to recuperate for at least a month, with fears that she could be out as long as six months. Allegedly, top brass have been talking about replacing the actress, but believe it would be too difficult and costly, as much of it has already been filmed with Turner. Per the insider:

The HBO breakout star, now 30 and mother of two, is taking up the mantle of the legendary PlayStation explorer, having been played by Angelina Jolie and Alicia Vikander in previous video game movie adaptations. Phoebe Waller-Bridge, creator of Fleabag, has written and produced the show, which added Sigourney Weaver and Jason Isaacs to its supporting cast.

This news is particularly upsetting given how excited Sophie Turner has seemed about taking on the role of Lara Croft. In recent interviews, she’s talked about transforming her body for the part with a personal trainer and even jokingly telling Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon that she felt like she “could beat you up right now.” Which was pretty believable, as we saw in the promo images released, she was sporting the video-game-accurate outfit that accentuated just how ripped her arms look these days. And, yeah, Fallon didn’t have as hot a time if he'd felt the urge to put him in a full nelson.

We still don’t know much about the Sansa Stark performer’s condition or its impact on the show’s future. Personally, if she is replaced, I’d find that almost more upsetting than the series being scrapped. Given the prestige of the upcoming video game adaptation and early looks, I hope neither happens. Here’s hoping Turner recovers soon and production resumes quickly.

Tomb Raider, presumably available with an Amazon Prime subscription if and when it’s released, does not have an official release date, though it was expected to drop sometime in early 2027. But now that the series’s future is in question, we will have to wait and see whether it makes that timeline or is scrapped.

When it was first announced that Sophie Turner would play Lara Croft in the upcoming Tomb Raider series for Prime Video, it was a somewhat surprising choice as the actress wasn't necessarily the first person you'd think of for that sort of role. Any doubts, however, are about to be put to rest, because we now have our first look at what Turner will look like as the iconic character, and she looks great and incredibly ripped.

Turner recently talked about the training she's been doing for the Tomb Raider series, but this is our first chance to really see what that will look like on screen. Needless to say, the training worked. She absolutely looks ready to take on any challenge, and she looks like a video game character brought to life. Get a look at the new Lara Croft:

We've seen some actors make some pretty incredible physical transformations for roles, but Sophie Turner has really outdone herself here. If Sansa Stark looked like this, she'd be sitting on the Iron Throne because she would have killed anybody who tried to stop her.

Turner's Lara Croft also looks like she just jumped out of a classic Tomb Raider video game. The most recent games in the franchise rebooted the character a bit, changing up her look among other things, and the most recent adaptations have been based on that reboot. However, this shows that the new series, which will be available with a Prime Video subscription, is going back to the classic duel pistol look that made the character so popular at the beginning.

It's arguably the most game-accurate adaptation we've seen, at least visually. Before I realized this was an official image, I thought it was some sort of AI creation because it almost looks too accurate to the old games. Even Angelina Jolie didn't look like she'd jumped straight out of a PlayStation 2 in her original Tomb Raider movies, but this look is clearly going for that.

The first look at Lara Croft comes as part of the official announcement that production on the new Tomb Raider series is officially underway. The show is being written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who is also co-showrunner. Turner will appear alongside a cast that includes Sigourney Weaver and Jason Isaacs, among others.

In much the same way I wasn't expecting Sophie Turner to be cast as Lara Croft, I wasn't expecting the show to go so hard with an original Tomb Raider design, but in both cases, I don't hate it. Turner looks incredible here. She really has been working out, and seeing this character spouting some sharp dialogue written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge has the potential to make for incredible television.

With the success of recent video game adaptations like The Last of Us and Fallout, it looks like adaptations based on video games are finally seeing some of the success that they have tried so long to achieve. One of the upcoming video game adaptations that is certainly hoping to follow in those footsteps is the Tomb Raider series starring Sophie Turner, and she’s certainly been putting the work in to achieve it.

In a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon the host brought up the fact that Turner had been cast in Tomb Raider. And while it was only just confirmed a few months ago that Turner was in the role, she revealed that she’s been training for the part for nearly a year already, which means she’s in such good shape she thinks she could take down the host. She said…

Turner’s dress when appearing on The Tonight Show didn’t exactly show off muscles, and it also prevented her from any physical displays of strength or dexterity, but one imagines that she’s in pretty solid shape. If any of us trained hard for a year, we’d probably be transformed. Note to self, get back in the gym.

The upcoming Tomb Raider series, which will be available with a Prime Video subscription, is shaping up to be something worth watching. With Turner in the lead, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge as co-showrunner and writer, the show is all but guaranteed to be a take on the Lara Croft character that we haven’t seen before.

The series has also filled out its cast with some solid names, including Sigourney Weaver and Jason Isaacs. The characters that have been introduced through the casting indicate the new show will be an original Tomb Raider story and not an adaptation of a previous game. That’s actually par for the course for the franchise as only the 2018 Tomb Raider movie starring Alicia Vikander was actually directly inspired by one of the games, and that failed to spawn the franchise it was looking for.

Turner confirmed that the series hasn’t begun filming yet, so we’re a long way off from actually getting any sort of look at the new series. But the actress is certainly doing her part. And while she didn’t beat up Jimmy Fallon, one assumes that she’ll get plenty of chances to beat people up when the Tomb Raider series arrives on Prime Video.

Considering that the Tomb Raider video game franchise owes its origins to Indiana Jones, there are few video game characters quite as well-suited to an onscreen adaptation as Lara Croft. We’ve seen the adventuring woman in big-screen films and animated series, but now the upcoming live-action Tomb Raider series is coming together as nearly a dozen roles have been cast for the show, including a pair of heavyweights in Sigourney Weaver and Jason Isaacs.

The upcoming Tom Riader series is written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and will star Sophie Turner in the lead role as Lara Croft. Up to now, hers was the only role that had been cast, but today several new additions were announced, including a few that will be recognizable to fans from the game. The descriptions of the characters come from Variety.

• Sigourney Weaver - Evelyn Wallis, “a mysterious, high-flying woman who is keen to exploit Lara’s talents”
• Jason Isaacs - Atlas Demorney, Lara’s uncle
• Bill Paterson - Winston, Lara’s Butler
• Martin Bobb-Semple - Zip, Lara’s Tech Support and Friend
• Celia Imrie - Francine, the head of advancement at the British Museum
• Jack Bannon - Gerry, Lara’s personal pilot and snack collector
• John Heffernan - David, an exhausted government official who finds himself tangled up in Lara’s unusual world.
• Paterson Joseph - Thomas Warner, “a senior government official brought in to clean up an almighty mess.”
• Sasha Luss - Sasha, “a fierce, deeply competitive new adversary of Lara’s.”
• Juliette Motamed - Georgia, “a devoted, by-the-books curator at the British Museum, dedicated to the ‘proper’ preservation of history.”
• August Wittgenstein - Lukas, “an illegal raider who shares history with Lara in more ways than one.”

As somebody who has generally enjoyed playing Tomb Raider video games and watching the various adaptations, I’m always interested in what a new take on the material would bring. Every step of the princess has made this particular project especially intriguing, from bringing in Phoebe Waller-Bridge as co-showrunner and writer to the casting of Sophie Turner; every choice hasn’t necessarily been the most obvious, but that’s what makes it interesting.

Game fans will recognize some of the characters listed here, like Winston, Lara’s Butler, who players would routinely lock in the freezer (iykyk), and Lara’s uncle, who is usually portrayed as a less-than-loving family member, making it just the sort of role we’d expect from Jason Isaacs.

The most interesting character, however, is the one being played by Sigourney Weaver. The word “exploit” being used would seem to indicate that she’s not playing one of the “good guys” either, but time will tell. Weaver has certainly played her share of villains, though she's generally the good guy, so we'll have to wait and see how this character shakes out.

The casting of so many characters that aren’t previously known would seem to confirm what had been previously rumored; that this series, which will be available with a Prime Video subscription, will be a fresh take on the material, rather than an adaptation of a previous game. It’s yet another decision that has the potential to make the show truly unique, and I, for one, can’t wait to see it.

After months of waiting, it’s finally been confirmed that Sophie Turner will, in fact, be taking on the role of Lara Croft in the upcoming video game adaptation of Tomb Raider. Yep, the Game of Thrones alum is set to lead this action-packed Amazon Prime series, and as a massive fan of her work on her HBO mega-hit, I’ve been waiting for her to land a part like this for years.

While Sophie Turner has taken on great projects since GOT ended, there’s no question that this one piqued my attention the most.

That’s true for a couple of reasons. First of all, we’ve been waiting for so long to get this news that it’s a relief to finally have it. According to Deadline, the actress entered negotiations for the part last November and was only just confirmed for it. Secondly, I cannot wait to see Turner play this badass character after her tenure as the intelligent, resilient and powerful Sansa Stark.

I’m truly looking forward to watching Sophie Turner play another heroic woman. I also love that this leading and high-profile part will be quite different from Sansa. In Game of Thrones (which you can stream with an HBO Max subscription), Sansa is rarely in the big action. In Tomb Raider, Lara Croft will be at the center of it.

However, I also love their similarities. In a statement, Vernon Sanders, the Head of Global Television at Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, said Lara is “defined by her courage, strength and unshakeable resolve.” I think you could say the same about Sansa, even though the way these characters act is totally different.

Turner’s take on the role will really be fascinating to see, too. While she’s the only person to play Sansa, she is not the first to play Lara. In movie adaptations of the game, Angelina Jolie and Alicia Vikander have played her, so watching how the Game of Thrones cast member follows in their footsteps and forges her own path will be fascinating. To that point, the actress said:

In regard to Turner’s casting, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the creator, writer and EP of Tomb Raider, couldn’t contain her excitement, as she said in a statement:

Along with her, Chad Hodge has signed on as an executive producer and co-showrunner. He’ll be working alongside Waller-Bridge and Jonathan Van Tulleken, who will direct and executive produce. It was also revealed that production will start on January 19, meaning movement on Tomb Raider is really happening now.

All of this has me utterly thrilled. Prime Video has a great reputation when it comes to adaptations, with one of Amazon’s best original shows being Fallout. Plus, considering Waller-Bridge’s work on shows like Fleabag, I’m positive she’ll have a unique take on this beloved character. Also, with Sophie Turner officially set to be our Lara Croft, I think we’re in for something great when Tomb Raider becomes available to those with an Amazon Prime subscription.

With Andor Season 2 now complete amid the 2025 TV schedule, the Rogue One spinoff has now definitively reached its conclusion. There’s a lot to love about the science fiction show (which is streamable with a Disney+ subscription), from its impeccable writing and awesome production values. Of course, the ensemble cast is also pitch-perfect, and relative newcomer Elizabeth Dulau is one of its brightest spots. Now, with the series done, Dulau just revealed a major role she’d love to play at some point – and I’m so here for her taking it on!

Elizabeth Dulau Reveals There’s An Action Hero Role She’s Been Eyeing

The up-and-coming British actress played the role of Kleya Marki during both seasons of Andor. Introduced as the assistant of Luthen Rael and a Rebel Alliance communications operator, Kleya’s role expanded during Season 2 as she began to perform more fieldwork. Elizabeth Dulau received critical acclaim for her performance during the last stretch of episodes and solidified herself as a fan-favorite. After making her mark on the galaxy far, far away, Dulau now wants to step into the shoes of a certain video game-birthed adventurer:

So which Hollywood executives do I have to talk to in order to make this happen? I’m really excited after hearing the House of Guinness tell Country & Town House about her desire to lead the Tomb Raider franchise. Upon giving it thought, there are several reasons as to why she would be a solid fit for the widely loved Lara.

Why Would Elizabeth Dulau Be A Strong Fit For The Character Of Lara Croft?

As Kleya Marki, Elizabeth Dulau perfectly exudes the character’s stoic nature as well as her desire to stand up for those in need or danger. Kleya has a somewhat defiant nature that shines through even during her conversations with Luthen. There’s more to the orphaned character than that, though, as there’s also a sheer sense of vulnerability to her that especially shines through during the final episodes of Andor. I’d argue that some of Kleya’s final scenes represent some of the show’s most tender moments.

Every single attribute described above could easily be applied to Lara Croft as well, which is why I think the London-born actress could slide right into that role. Of course, there is a physical component to the role of Croft, as her former live-action portrayers, Angelina Jolie and Alicia Vikander, performed stunts while playing the character. I have no doubts, however, that Elizabeth Dulau could throw herself into training and commit to the necessary physicality.

The Tomb Raider franchise is an interesting space, from a live-action standpoint. Actress and producer Phoebe Waller-Bridge was developing a series for Amazon Prime Video, and Sophie Turner was tapped to play Lara. However, that project was eventually canceled. At present, Hayley Atwell portrays the role in the animated series, The Legend of Lara Croft, which is streamable with a Netflix subscription. Given it's been over seven years since the film starring Alicia Vikander hit theaters, it would be wonderful to see another live-action interpretation of Croft.

If another live-action take on the Tomb Raider mythology does come together, I’m not sure if Elizabeth Dulau will actually receive serious consideration. But, given her performance on Andor (which marked her first starring role), she should certainly receive a look from any casting directors. I’ll be sitting here crossing my fingers that it happens but, in the meantime, do yourself a favor and check her out on the recently-ended Star Wars show.

For almost as long as video games have been popular, Hollywood has been adapting them for movies and television shows. Often it's fighting games like Mortal Kombat, but even more G-rated games like Candy Crush have been adapted in one way or another. The adaptations aren't always great, but the games they chose usually are. Here is our list of great games that have been adapted into movies and TV shows.

Mortal Kombat

When the first Mortal Combat video game was first released in 1992 it was immediately one of the most controversial games on the market. It was also massively popular. It's still very popular, as new games have continued to be released over the years and there have been multiple adaptions, including for the first time as a movie in 1995.

Tomb Raider

The first Tomb Raider video game came out in 2001 and there have been multiple installments of the game about a female archeologist and action hero, Lara Croft. The game was first adapted into a movie starring Angelia Jolie in 2001's Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and its sequel. It was adapted again in a reboot starring Alicia Vikander, in 2018.

Sonic The Hedgehog

The first Sonic The Hedgehog game became a pillar of the SEGA gaming system in 1991. It took a long time, but it was eventually adapted into a hit movie in 2020 with the same name. In the '90s, it was briefly turned into an animated show as well.

The Last Of Us

The Last Of Us was an unlikely hit video game before it was turned into a very well-received hit TV show on HBO. The show, starring Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal, has found fans far from its core gamer base and is one of the best shows in HBO in recent history.

Warcraft

The Warcraft series of video games has been one of the more enduring franchises in the whole industry. It makes sense that eventually it would get adapted into a movie. It finally was for the first time in 2016. Unfortunately, the movie didn't live up to the popularity of the game and was a critical and box office flop.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

The Super Mario Bros. Movie released in 2023 defied all the cynics when it became a massive hit. Critics of the movie doubted the animated movie could be a hit, but in a tribute to the enduring popularity of a game series that started in the early 1980s, the movie went on to make over $1.3 billion at the box office.

Five Nights at Freddy's

Indie video games don't often turn into huge media franchises, but that is just what Five Nights at Freddy's has done. The original game, released in 2004 found a hardcore cult following that has grown with each subsequent release. The first movie was released in 2023 and made more than ten times its budget at the box office.

Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?

In the mid-80s, computer games were still in their infancy, and one of the most popular games was Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? It was so popular that it was turned into a kids game show in 1991 with the late, great Lynn Thigpen presenting it. It was rebooted by Netflix, but that proved to be a great example of a show that didn't need to be rebooted.

Twisted Metal

Between 1996 and 2012 the Twisted Metal franchise released eight games and became one of the most popular driving games of all time. More than a decade after its last release, it was turned into a TV show on Peacock where its enduring popularity made it a hit.

Assassin's Creed

The Assassin's Creed games have been wildly popular since the first game was released in 2007. Multiple version of the game, spread out over different eras of history, have remained popular in spite of the one attempt to adapt to a movie, starring Michael Fassbender, in 2016, disappointed critics and fans of the game alike.

Double Dragon

Double Dragon was one of the very first one-on-one fighting games when it was first released in 1987. It was also one of the first to be adapted into a movie when a film starring Robert Patrick, Scott Wolf, and Alyssa Milano was released in 1994. The movie was pretty bad, and that was reflected in its dismal box office performance.

Resident Evil

Resident Evil is a rare example of a video series and a movie series that have both been wildly successful. Multiple entries of both have proven to be popular over the last couple of decades. Zombies never really go out of style.

Fallout

The Fallout video game series launched in 1997 and multiple entires in both the main series and in spinoffs have been released in the years since. After a few attempts to get a movie made, the game was finally adapted for a TV show in 2024, and it became an instant hit on Amazon's stream service.

Rampage

Of all the movies on this list, Rampage has to be the one that was the most surprising to get a movie adaptation of it. Sure, the game was popular when it was released in 1987, but it never seemed like the kind of game that would get turned into a movie. That is until it was made into a disaster film starring Dwayne Johnson in 2018.

Pokémon

It's hard to pick just one adaption for Pokémon. The franchise is ubiquitous in every possible way. Whether it's video games, playing cards, comic books, TV shows, and movies, Pokémon is everywhere.

Pac-Man

In the 1980s Pac-Man was more than just a video game. It was a cultural phenomenon. It was really the first time a video crossed over fully into pop culture, so it makes sense that it would be one of the first games to get adapted into a TV show, in the form of a Saturday morning cartoon in 1982.

Doom

Dwayne Johnson has starred in a few video game adaptations, including 2005's Doom. The movie was based on one of the first, and most popular first-person shooter games of the same name that was also incredibly controversial as such. The movie was less controversial, and significantly less popular than the game as well.

Candy Crush

One of the early smash hit games for smartphones was Candy Crush when it came out in 2012. It was adapted into a game show presented by Mario Lopez in 2017, but it was not popular, to say the least, and was canceled after just nine episodes.

Maniac Mansion

Perhaps the weirdest entry on this list is Maniac Mansion. The 1987 PC-based game was pretty popular for its day, but no one would have thought it could be turned into a TV. Those doubters were proved wrong when it did become a TV show on Canadian television in 1990. The show did not have much in common with the game, however.

Halo

When the XBox was first released, a ton of effort was put into the first game included with the console, Halo. It has remained a staple of the console and many different versions of the game have been released over the years. After many starts and stops in other media, with multiple attempts to make various movies and TV shows, finally in 2022 the hit franchise was launched as a TV series on Paramount+, where it ran for two seasons.

Alone In The Dark

In 1992 Atari created the first Alone In The Dark game and it has since gone on to become one of the most enduring franchises since. In the ultimate proof that a game's popularity doesn't automatically translate to box office success, the 2005 Alone In The Dark movie, starring Christian Slater, was a huge bomb.

DOA: Dead Or Alive

Sometimes it seems that most video game adaptions bomb when they are adapted into movies. That's because of movies like DOA: Dead Or Alive. Based on the hit fighting franchise of the same name DOA: Dead Or Alive absolutely tanked at the box office, making less than $8 million against a $30 million budget.

Prince Of Persia: The Sands of Time

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time starring Jake Gyllenhaal was a huge gamble by Disney when they put up a monster budget to adapt the movie from the hit video game franchise, Prince of Persia. The movie made money, which must have relieved some at the House of Mouse, but it was a pretty modest success, and ultimately a planned sequel was canceled.

Tekken

Fighting game franchise Tekken launched on the heels of the massive success of Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. For many, it's always felt like a bit of a copycat to those other two monster franchises, but it has a solid core of fans. Enough, in fact, to get a movie financed in 2009, but it completely bombed at the box office.

Knuckles

Paramount+ show Knuckles is a rare example of a spinoff of a video game adaptation. The show is based on the titular character, known as Knuckles the Echidna in full, who appears in the Sonic The Hedgehog movies and is also a playable character in video games. He first appeared in the third installment of the video game, in 1994.

Need for Speed

A popular genre of video game that seems like more adaptations could come from is racing games. There aren't many, though Need for Speed is a notable exception. The games are all great, and the movie is a pretty great car racing movie.

Wing Commander

For some of us, it's hard to believe that the Wing Commander video game franchise is more than three decades old at this point, but the first one was released in 1990. The movie adaption, released in 1999, was significantly less memorable, having bombed big time at the box office.

House Of The Dead

German director Uwe Boll made a name for himself in the mid-'00s when he adapted a slew of video games into films. Unfortunately, almost all of them bombed, including his first attempt, House of the Dead in 2013. It was adapted from the video game of the same name.

Gangs Of London

The 2006 game Gangs of London seemed like an unlikely choice for adaptation, but it defied expectations when it became a surprising hit TV show for Sky Atlantic and AMC in 2020. Popular with fans and critics alike, the show has proven to be more popular than the game it is based on.

BloodRayne

BloodRayne, starring Kristanna Loken, Michael Madsen, and Michelle Rodriguez was the third attempt by director Uwe Boll to adapt a video game. It was also the third time that an attempt bombed at the box office. The movie is based on a pretty popular game released in 2002.

Uncharted

With almost a dozen released over the years, Uncharted has remained a very popular video game series. As such, it makes sense that someone would try to adapt into a hit movie. The 2022 movie starring Tom Holland turned into one of the most popular video game adaptations of all time, bringing in more than $400 million at the box office.

Street Fighter

Before Tekken, and before Mortal Kombat, there was Street Fighter. For its many fans, it was and remains still the greatest fighting game of all time. With dozens of releases over the years on virtually every game console since the '80s, it's one of the giants in video game history. It was first adapted into a live-action film in 1994 starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and over the years it's been adapted into multiple animated movies and TV shows.

The following contains minor spoilers for Netflix’s Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft.

While I don’t play as many video games as I once did, I don’t need to play games as much these days since many of my favorite game franchises are finding new life on TV and in movies. From Fallout to The Last of Us and even The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the biggest characters in games are now the biggest characters on the big and small screens, finding new audiences through new media. There are plenty more upcoming video game adaptations, but the most recent to come out is a new animated Tom Raider series from Netflix.

I didn’t know a great deal about Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft (not to be confused with a live-action Tomb Raider project currently in development at Amazon) before I sat down to watch the new Netflix animated series. But being a fan of the franchise, I didn’t need anything more than that to give the series a try.

By and large, it’s a fairly paint-by-number adventure. It didn't blow me away, but I still had fun with it. However, my wife did not. In retrospect, I think the major difference is that your enjoyment of the series may be dependent on whether or not you played the most recent games.

Netflix’s Tomb Raider Is A New Series And It’s Also A Sequel

Tomb Raider: The Legend Of Lara Croft is a brand-new series, so while I certainly had expectations of what the series would be like because it’s a Tomb Raider title, what I was not prepared for was the fact that the series is actually a direct sequel to the most recent trilogy of Tomb Raider of video games.

2013 saw the release of Tomb Raider. The game had no subtitle or other moniker because the game was designed to be a new origin story for Lara Croft. The game would get a pair of sequels in 2015 and 2018. Interestingly, the first scene in the new Netflix series is set prior to the events of these three games. The story then time jumps three years into the future and picks up after the games have concluded.

This is a very interesting and questionable choice, not the least of which because one of the two characters that are introduced in that first scene, the one that isn’t Lara Croft, is dead after the time jump. In most cases, we might expect the series to explore the circumstances of the death throughout the series, perhaps through a series of flashbacks that explain what happened in the missing time. But that doesn’t happen here because it already happened years ago in a video game.

Tomb Raider: The Legend Of Lara Croft Assumes You Played A Video Game A Decade Ago

Technically there are flashbacks in The Legend of Lara Croft that show the death of Roth, Lara’s surrogate father. However, that’s all they do. They show Roth dying, taking a flying ax to the back, and they confirm that Lara was there when it happened. However, the circumstances behind exactly what happened are never directly addressed.

If you played the 2013 Tomb Raider game, which also inspired the 2018 Tomb Raider movie starring Alicia Vikander, you know the story because that’s where you find the details of Roth's death. Lara and her crew, which included Roth, Jonah (who has a significant role in the series) and other characters who appear in the series, ended up shipwrecked on an island inhabited by a strange cult. Lara’s friend Sam gets kidnapped by the group, and Lara attempts to rescue her and find a way off the island. Roth ends up being killed by the cultists.

The method of Roth’s death isn’t strictly necessary to know or understand to follow the plot of Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft, but the fact that Roth died and that Lara blames herself is a key piece of her characterization. So it’s missing if you have never played the game or simply don’t remember them.

I played that Tomb Raider game; in fact, I’m pretty sure I played it more than once, But the game first came out over a decade ago and it needs to be said I barely remembered that Roth was in those games. Even I could have used some sort of refresher.

The Legend Of Lara Croft Requires More Work To Enjoy It Properly

As franchises continue to expand at a seemingly exponential rate, the need to consume all elements of a franchise becomes more important, but also more difficult.

It’s one thing if watching one show requires knowledge of other shows. Star Wars' Ahsoka series was essentially a sequel to the Rebels animated series. That meant to get everything out of it, you really needed to watch the other show. Still, at least the other show was available with the same Disney+ subscription you needed to watch Ahsoka in the first place, so doing so wasn’t too much of a hassle if you chose to do it.

But now the “homework” extends across mediums. Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft doesn’t just follow a video game, an entirely different piece of content that not everybody does, but it assumes you played it and remember all the details about it.

Legend of Lara Croft gives you the information from the games that’s important, but it does so devoid of context. It tells you that the character who died was important to Lara, but simply having that information doesn’t make it so. Lara’s internal conflict is understandable if you played the games, but it doesn’t mean anything if you didn’t and that hampers the show’s ability to tell a meaningful story.

Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft does one other thing that I’m growing to hate, which is ending its season on a cliffhanger without any guarantee that another season will actually happen. If it does, I can only hope the new season will only require viewers to have seen the previous season. I fear that too many people won’t watch the new Netflix series in its entirety because they also didn’t play the game.

We all deserve a little treat as a way to say to ourselves, "job well done". No matter how hard, grueling or menial the task, everybody should relax and enjoy some R&R when a project has been completed. That's what fan-favorite actress Hayley Atwell did sometime after she completed work on Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft, which is a key title on the 2024 TV schedule. Sometime before the new Netflix release dropped this month, Atwell vacationed in Croatia, and the views were absolutely breathtaking.

Hayley Atwell, best known to Marvel fans for her role as Peggy Carter, is making a splash via her voice role as Lara Croft. Ironically, she's proving to be a globe-trotter like her character, following her recent excursion Europe. She posted photos from the trip to her Instagram and, if these pics don't make you want to book a trip immediately, I don't know what will:

She tagged what she called her "beloved" Maslina Resort in Stari Grad, Croatia. The photos show the Mission: Impossible star enjoying the blue skies and equally beautiful, blue ocean. Also, I'm not sure who took those photos, but they deserve a shoutout for really capturing the beauty of the star's surroundings.

The caption that Hayley Atwell shared also suggests that she was more than enjoying herself. Needless to say, she was simply living her best life, and you love to see it.

Getting some down time and clearing the mind is a good way to prepare for a release and go into it with an open mind. I can't think of a better way to go into one than with some sweet sun, excellent waves and good friends. Of course, the Christopher Robin star also knows when to work when called upon to do so.

Those who've already seen the actress' new animated series, which dropped on October 10th, can probably attest to the starlet's talents. The story centers on the eponymous Lara Croft, as she races to stop an ex-mercenary from bringing forth the destruction of the world. Along the way, she must also rely on the help of her allies and battle with inner demons.

Some fans of the games and past movies have been on the fence about this Tomb Raider iteration. This may be because past entries have been met with very mixed reactions. However, this latest take on the beloved character and her world seems to deliver the action, humor and heart that's long been associated with the franchise.

As the series continues to be viewed, one would hope that Hayley Atwell is still treating herself to some tender loving care. Given the work she's done, she certainly deserves it. All the while, you can do yourself a favor by chilling and streaming Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft using a Netflix subscription now.

Considering Alicia Vikander’s Lara Croft never got a second Tomb Raider feature, I admittedly wasn’t all that excited about the prospects of an animated Tomb Raider series heading to Netflix’s 2024 schedule, even with the exciting prospect of Hayley Atwell voicing the lead. But here I am after watching the first trailer for Netflix’s The Legend of Lara Croft, 100% ready to follow the brainy archaeologist anywhere around the globe.

As a direct narrative successor to the Survivor trilogy of Tomb Raider games, this new project follows the ever-courageous and inquisitive adventurer on a new quest filled with high-stakes maneuvering and gorgeous locales.

Part of the reason why I’m so newly pumped about Tomb Raider’s arrival as an episodic series is because of the largely gorgeous and kinetic visuals from Powerhouse Animation. That’s the studio that has also been responsible for the eye-popping animation for Castlevania and its Nocturne spinoff, Seis Manos, Blood of Zeus, Masters of the Universe, and Skull Island.

While it might not be for everyone, Powerhouse’s style is quite gorgeous when it comes to massive settings with a lot of depth, and action sequences are always as energetic as can be, which is absolutely on display in the trailer.

Never to be confused with Prime Video’s live-action Lara Croft series being tackled by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, this animated series boasts The Witcher: Blood Origin and Red Sonja writer Tasha Huo as its showrunner and executive producer. Legendary Television is the big studio helping it all come together along with dj2 Entertainment and its CEO Dmitri M. Johnson, who has produced the Sonic the Hedgehog films and has a host of video game adaptations in various stages of production, from Just Cause to Dredge.

Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft will be available to stream with a Netflix subscription on Thursday, October 10.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has changed the way people watch movies in many ways, but possibly the most important is the way it has convinced audiences to sit through the credits. Rare is there an MCU movie without an exciting post-credits tease for an upcoming Marvel movie, or at the very least a funny joke.

However, Marvel Studios didn't invent the post-credits scene. Many movies added scenes after the credits began that made it worth continuing to watch. And since the MCU made them popular, a lot more movies have added their own. Here are some of the best post-credits scenes that aren't from Marvel movies. 

Ferris Bueller's Day Off 

Ferris Bueller's Day Off gets the audience to hang around by having an entire extra scene play out throughout the credits. This means there's a pretty good chance most of the audience is still watching when Matthew Broderick's Ferris returns, in his bathrobe, to ask why the audience why they're all still here because the movie is over. 

The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl 

The curse, in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is all about pirates who have been cursed with a state of living death after stealing Aztec gold. By the end of the film, the curse has been lifted as all the gold is returned. However, in a post-credits scene, we see Captain Barbossa's pet monkey, Jack, steal one of the pieces of gold back, cursing the little monkey once again.

 Frozen II 

One of the most popular scenes in Frozen II is where Olaf relates the story of the original movie to the people of the Enchanted Forest. It was so popular Olaf got an entire Disney+ show dedicated to him telling different Disney stories. But there is one final Olaf story you missed as if you haven't sat through the credits as Olaf relates the movie we just watched to Marshmellow and the Snowgies at Elsa's Ice Castle. 

Black Adam 

Black Adam was one of the last DC movies released before the decision was made to reboot the DCU under James Gunn. It was especially unfortunate timing since the Black Adam post-credits scene saw the return of Henry Cavill as Superman for the first time since Justice League, and teased a superhero battle with Black Adam we'll now never see. 

 The Muppet Movie 

The Muppet Movie is a movie within a movie, so when the credits roll, the audiences of both films are wrapping up their theater experience. We watch a scene over the credit of the Muppets getting up to various shenanigans. If you got so involved that you stayed through the credits, Animal shouts at you to "Go Home."

Tomb Raider 

Alicia Vikander starred as video game heroine Lara Croft in a 2018 film that failed to relaunch a franchise. The first film was clearly hoping there would be more, as a post-credits scene shows Lara returning to a weapons dealer she dealt with earlier in the film, to buy two identical handguns, a reference to the video game character's classic dual-wielding style. 

Daredevil 

The MCU may have made post-credits scenes cool, but some pre-MCU Marvel movies had them first. The original Daredevil movie starring Ben Affleck in the title role included Colin Farrell as comic book villain Bullseye. The character appears to die in the film, being tossed out a window by the man without fear. However, a post-credits scene reveals a heavily bandaged Bullseye is still alive, teasing a sequel that would never come.

Fast & Furious 6 

Many post-credits scenes are used to tease the villains for future installments, but few have gone as big as Fast & Furious 6. The final scene in that movie reveals that the death of fan-favorite character Han wasn't an accident as believed, but rather caused by a new antagonist, played by none other than Jason Statham, and he was coming for the rest of the team.

Masters of the Universe 

The first attempt at a big-screen live-action He-Man movie did not go well, but that didn't mean Masters of the Universe wasn't ready for sequels. Despite Skelator appearing to die in the movie, a post-credit scene reveals that the villain is still very much alive. He promised, "I'll be back." He was not.

Space Jam 

Space Jam starred Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes, and there's really only way to end a Looney Tunes movie. Bugs Bunny appears in a post-credits scene to say the classic "That's All Folks" before Porky Pig arrives to claim the line as his own. Even Daffy Duck gets in on the action leading to a scuffle over who gets to end the movie. 

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

The box office success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie made a sequel all but guaranteed. Considering the decades of Mario games there are plenty of directions for a second film to go, but a post-credits scene seemed to make at least one thing clear, as it revealed the existence of a Yoshi egg in New York, and it was hatching. 

Ralph Breaks the Internet 

Ralph Breaks the Internet wasn't the best Disney movie but it had some pretty good jokes about the modern internet age. One of the best came after the credits of the film where Ralph teased the audience with scenes from the then-upcoming Frozen II only to Rickroll the audience with a clip of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up."

Venom: Let There Be Carnage 

The Venom movies are not technically part of the MCU, but the post-credits scene of Venom: Let There Be Carnage teased that possibility when Eddie Brock and his alien symbiote found themselves transported to a world where Tom Holland played Spider-Man. 

Cloverfield 

What we got at the end of Cloverfield wasn't technically a scene, as it had no visual element. Instead, staying through to the end audiences heard a sound which, when played in reverse, revealed a voice saying "It's still alive." It seems the monster maybe isn't dead after all.

X-Men: The Last Stand 

X-Men: The Last Stand kills off several members of the classic team, but not all of them stay dead. In a post-credits scene, Dr. Moira MacTaggert discovers that Professor X is still alive. After having his body destroyed by Phoenix, his mind has seemingly taken over a comatose patient. 

Pacific Rim 

Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim certainly left a door open to potential sequels, but its post-credits scene is just a hilarious joke that reveals that Ron Perlman's character, who had been consumed by a baby kaiju, is actually still alive. He cuts himself free while wondering what happened to his shoe, which had fallen off while he was being devoured. 

Deadpool 

In a post-credits scene that references another post-credits scene, the final shots of Deadpool are dedicated to a shot-for-shot recreation of the Ferris Bueller's Day Off scene where the Merc with a Mouth informs audiences waiting for a post-credits scene to go home because the movie is over. 

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End 

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End has a somewhat sad ending as it confirms that Will's new responsibilities as Captain of the Flying Dutchman will keep away from his love Elizabeth. But the post-credits scene makes things a bit happier Set years later,  Elizabeth and her child, conceived during their last time together, are seen arriving at the shore for Will's return. Love has won out.

Suicide Squad 

Suicide Squad was a movie that, despite a solid box office, never got the follow-up many fans were expecting. This is even though its post-credits scene included an appearance by Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne, getting information on the Squad for reasons that we would never learn about. 

Lightyear 

Lightyear was Pixar's attempt to take the popular Toy Story character Buzz Lightyear in a new direction, making a more traditional science fiction action movie. While the movie's box office guaranteed no sequel would be forthcoming, the movie has multiple post-credit sequences teasing a future for the character, including a final confirmation that Zurg still lives.

Kong: Skull Island 

Modern post-credits scenes are frequently used to build cinematic universes, to add scenes that are not necessary to the main film but can add flavor or context. Such was the final scene of Kong: Skull Island which officially revealed that Kong lived in the same world as Godzilla and other kaiju, confirming the MonsterVerse that was to come. 

Ghostbusters (2016) 

The 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters featuring an all-female cast was largely its own thing, with a story and characters quite unlike the original, However, if there had been a sequel, it might have dealt with elements from the original franchise as the post-credits scene includes Leslie Jones listening to a tape recording and asking "What's Zuul?"

Airplane! 

It's worth reading the credits for 1980's Airplane!, as many of them are quite funny. If you do stay through, you'll be treated to one final joke. The cab that Ted Striker left at the curb at the airport at the beginning of the movie, is still there, and surprisingly, so is the guy who was planning to take the cab before Ted ran off. He figures he's going to give the guy another 20 minutes, and then he'll leave. 

Wonder Woman 1984 

It's not uncommon for franchise movies that have been on TV or the big screen before to include cameo appearances by the stars who played the roles previously. Wonder Woman 1984 takes that to a new level when a post-credits scene reveals that Asteria, the Amazonian warrior whose armor Diana wore in the main film, is still alive, and is played by the original TV Wonder Woman Lynda Carter.

Big Hero 6 

Until Stan Lee passed away the Marvel Comics creator had a cameo in virtually every movie ever made based on Marvel properties. While Big Hero 6 was the creation of Walt Disney Animation Studios, it's based on a Marvel Comic, and is about superheroes, so of course Stan Lee appears. Lee plays Fred's dad, and in the post-credits scene, Fred discovers his dad is also a superhero.

Jumanji: The Next Level 

After two Jumanji movies brought kids into the game as video game avatars, the post-credits sequence of Jumanji: The Next Level potentially teased something different. After the game is activated once again our human main characters find themselves in the middle of a stampede of ostriches, indicating that Jumanji has now come to the real world. 

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was so popular that fans instantly wanted a sequel, and the movie itself seemed to know that. Its post-credits scene introduced a new version of Spidey we hadn't met in the main movie, Spider-Man 2099, who would go on to become a key character in the sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

Finding Dory 

Finding Dory has little direct connection to its predecessor Finding Nemo beyond the main characters. However, the sequel does reveal the fate of some characters from the first film in a post-credits scene. We learn that Gill and the other fish who escaped from the aquarium are alive, though they're still stuck in the bags they escaped in.

Fast Five 

Staying dead in the Fast & Furious franchise is a difficult thing. Nearly everybody who has died has come back to life. The first of those was Michelle Rodriquez's Letty. Believed dead early in the fourth Fast & Furious movie, in the post-credits scene of Fast Five we learn that she is, in fact, still alive. 

Suicide Squad 

Considering the name of the team is Suicide Squad, a surprising number of them don't die in the James Gunn-directed sequel. Two scenes pop in after the credits start. The first reveals that Weasel, despite apparently drowning in the first few minutes of the film, is still alive. The second scene reveals that Peacemaker, who had been shot in the neck and had a building fall on him, was somehow not dead, setting up his HBO Max series. 

Moana 

Moana goes through so much on her journey across the sea that it would be easy to forget about Tamatoa, the crab obsessed with shiny objects that Maui needs to face to get back his magic fishhook. He ends up flat on his back in the altercation, and as a post-credits scene reveals, he's still like that when the movie is over. 

Deadpool 2 

Deadpool 2 deals with time travel, and unsurprisingly Deadpool decides to use the power for his own ends once the future has been saved. In a series of sequences Deadpool saves the love of his life, undoes the events of X-Men: Origins Wolverine, and even prevents Ryan Reynolds from making a really bad superhero movie. 

The Tomb Raider franchise will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2026, and the iconic game series is about to get the small-screen treatment with a live-action TV show. The upcoming video game adaptation, which will be available with an Amazon subscription at some point in the future, will bring the adventures of Lara Croft to life with some major talent on both sides of the camera. As someone who has been playing these games from the beginning, I couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come.

If you want to know more about the Amazon original series, I’ve got a treat for you. Grab your compass, backpack, and sense of adventure, because we’re diving into the new Tomb Raider TV show…

What Is The Tomb Raider Premiere Date?

It has not yet been announced when we’ll get to watch the new Tomb Raider live-action series, as the premiere date remains one of the biggest mysteries concerning the Amazon original. As much as I would love to see this drop at some point on the 2026 TV schedule to celebrate the game franchise’s big anniversary, I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see Lara Croft start solving puzzles and taking on all manners of threats (human, animal, dinosaur) for another year. However, I could be wrong (I hope I’m wrong).

The Tomb Raider TV Show Cast

Over the years, talented actresses like Angelina Jolie, Alicia Vikander, and Hayley Atwell have portrayed Lara Croft in various live-action movies and animated series, and now a Game of Thrones alum will take on the role. Amazon has announced that Sophie Turner will portray the iconic video game character in the new series, and the X-Men star sounds awfully excited to be a part of the series. As she revealed in a statement:

Turner won’t be alone in the series, as Amazon has put together a killer cast surrounding the star. Here’s everyone who has been announced for the show so far:

• Sigourney Weaver as Evelyn Wallis
• Jason Isaacs as Atlas DeMornay
• Martin Bobb-Semple as Zip
• Celia Imrie Francine
• Bill Patterson as Winston
• Jack Bannon as Gerry
• John Hefferman as David
• Paterson Joseph as Thomas Warner
• Sasha Luss as Sasha
• Juliette Motamed as Georgia
• August Wittgenstein as Lukas

Phoebe Waller-Bridge Is The Writer And Executive Producer Of The Tomb Raider Series

Phoebe Waller-Bridge will be writing and serving as the executive producer on the Tomb Raider TV show. The Emmy-winning Fleabag creator was confirmed to be spearheading the latest adaptation of the popular game franchise when the show was picked up back in May 2024, but she had been involved with the project for around a year or so beforehand.

Waller-Bridge may not seem like the first person you’d call on to reinvent a franchise, but the Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny star has a long history with the games on which her new show is based. In a 2023 interview with Vanity Fair, she admitted to being a Tomb Raider addict when she was younger, stating:

Waller-Bridge would later fall back in love with the game during the pandemic, and shortly after she was approached by Amazon about developing the project. Later in the profile, she said she wanted to “do right by her, do right by Lara.” Now, she gets her chance.

Joining Waller-Bridge on the creative side is Chad Hodge, who will serve as co-showrunner and executive producer. Hodge’s previous credits include Wayward Pines, Good Behavior, and Famous, to name a few. They will also be joined by Jonathan Van Tulleken, who’ll serve as director and executive producer. If Van Tulleken’s name sounds familiar, it could have something to do with his work on Shogun a couple of years back.

The Live-Action Series Will Follow The Iconic Video Game Character Lara Croft

Amazon hasn’t revealed any specifics about the Tomb Raider plot when it comes to creating a new story or adapting one of the many games from the franchise, but the live-action series will follow Lara Croft on an adventure of some sort. With the way Waller-Bridge helped punch up the No Time to Die script a few years ago, the franchise should be in good hands with whatever story she comes up with.

That said, there are so many different directions this story could take. On one hand, they could adapt the early games in which Lara is already an established archaeologist, while on the other, they could pursue a story similar to the 2013 reboot that focused on a younger and more inexperienced heroine following a deadly shipwreck. Or they could simply create something entirely new.

The Tomb Raider Franchise Has Been A Major Force In The Video Game World For 30 Years

If you were around and playing video games in the ‘90s, there’s a good chance you’ve played (or at least attempted to play) one, two, or all of the various Tomb Raider games released since we were first introduced to Lara Croft back in 1996.

Since then, there have been nearly two dozen releases in the series, including several reboots like Crystal Dynamics’ 2013 Tomb Raider, which completely changed both the gameplay and the presentation of the franchise star. Playing the games has never been easier when it comes to accessibility, as all of the newer titles are available on modern consoles, and the first three games were repackaged and remastered in early 2024 (another collection followed in 2025). There is also a remake of the first game, titled Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, set for a 2026 release, as well as a new title, Tomb Raider: Catalyst, scheduled to drop in 2027.

Production Will Reportedly Get Underway In January 2026

Though Amazon hasn’t announced any release date or window at this time, it sounds like production on Tomb Raider could get underway very, very soon. In September 2025, Deadline reported that cameras were set to start rolling on January 19, 2026, which is days away at the time of this writing. Expect to hear much more about a shoot in the days and weeks to come.

How To Watch Previous Tomb Raider Adaptations

The upcoming Tomb Raider show is the latest in a long line of movies and series inspired by the iconic video game and its famous heroine. Though it’s still not known how the new show will tie into the franchise, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to go back and watch everything that’s come before. I mean, you could also play the games, but there are so many at this point, and I’m not sure you’d have the time or patience to complete them all, especially those earlier entries in the franchise.

That said, here’s how to watch the Tomb Raider franchise up to this point:

• Rent/Buy Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) on Amazon.
• Rent/Buy Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life (2003) on Amazon.
• Rent/Buy Tomb Raider (2018) on Amazon
• Stream Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft (2024 - 2025) on Netflix.

Expect to hear a whole lot more about the Tomb Raider TV show in the weeks and months to come. Until then, I think I’m going to go back and play some of those games again.

After what seems like decades of poorly received video game movies, the genre has seen some major leaps and jumps in the past few years, thanks to adaptations like Sonic the Hedgehog, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and even Peacock’s Twisted Metal series all hitting it off with critics and fans alike. One upcoming video game project that I’m especially excited about is the Tomb Raider TV show currently being developed by none other than Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Yes, the creator of Fleabag and star of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

As a longtime fan of the video game franchise (the title screen music plays in my head, like, all the time), the thought of one of the funniest, most dynamic, and punchy voices in Hollywood spearheading the project is something I am very excited about. Here are six reasons why I can’t wait to see what she does with Tomb Raider.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge Grew Up On The Tomb Raider Games  

Nothing against the screenwriters of the previous Tomb Raider movies (both the Angelina Jolie and Alicia Vikander interpretations), but I firmly believe that whenever Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s take on the classic 3D platformer comes out it will be the best version of the character, considering the Emmy winner grew up a massive fan of the original games. As she told Vanity Fair in June 2023, she was so into playing the games she had to pack up her PlayStation and focus on other things as a teenager:

Later on in the interview, Waller-Bridge revealed that she rekindled her love for the games during the pandemic, which leads me to believe that Lara Croft was still floating around in her head all those years in-between.

The Fleabag Creator Has Also Said She Wants To 'Do Right By Lara' 

The star, like Lara, has a very distinct and proud personality, which honestly makes her the ideal person to tackle a character she described to Vanity Fair as one with “an attitude” and who is “very deliberate in what she wanted to do.” That being said, the Killing Eve creator has said she wants to “do right by her” with the upcoming show after revisiting the games:

That desire, combined with Waller-Bridge’s love for the franchise, leads me to believe that this is going to be something revolutionary and more than just your run of the mill video game adaptation. This could be HUGE.

Waller-Bridge Has A History Of Writing Incredibly Strong Female Characters

Throughout her career, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s various projects have seen her do just about everything in front of and behind the camera. Just about all of those feature incredibly strong female characters, especially Fleabag and Killing Eve. 

This doesn’t mean the writer makes perfect, idyllic characters who are everything people dream they could be in reality. Instead, she crafts these remarkably rich, realistic, and oftentimes flawed female leads who aren’t afraid to be their own person. With Lara Croft being a determined adventurer and archaeologist (like Waller-Bridge’s Dial of Destiny character), she’s without a doubt the best person for the job to retool the classic video game lead. 

She Also Has Experience Writing For Massive Action Movies 

In addition to appearing in one of the Indiana Jones movies, creating Fleabag and Killing Eve, and doing just about everything else under the sun, the talent also has some experience with writing for massive action properties like the James Bond film franchise. 

Even though she didn’t write the entirety of the No Time to Die script, the writer and actress made contributions to the screenplay throughout its development. Ahead of the 2021 film’s release, star Daniel Craig told CinemaBlend that Waller-Bridge and co-star Lashana Lynch helped flesh out the partnership shared by the two 00-agents at its core. Combine all this with her experience in front of the camera for Solo: A Star Wars Story and it’s easy to see why she’s such a good fit. 

Though She's Not Acting In The Series, I'm Excited To See What She Brings From Her Indiana Jones Experience

I was already stoked to see Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (because who doesn’t love Harrison Ford’s iconic character?), but I was even more excited upon learning Waller-Bridge was going to be playing beside him. However, it seems like the actress was even more excited to be a part of the project than anyone would have guessed, as she told CinemaBlend:

I know Waller-Bridge won’t be playing Lara Croft in the TV show (though I can hope, right?), but it will be interesting to see what she takes from the experience of playing Helena Shaw and applies to the titular tomb raider. 

The Show Could Also Lead To New Movies And Games, Which Would Be Great 

I may be getting ahead of myself here, but I think the show will be a hit and then lead to a resurgence in the franchise’s movie output and lead to the first game in the series since 2018’s Shadow of the Tomb Raider. As Deadline reported back in February 2023, the Amazon original series appears to be the first in a multi-part process that could see the property become an absolute juggernaut in the coming years. 

If this ends up happening, I’m going to be excited for a number of reasons. There’s the side of me that’s excited to see one of my favorite video game franchises come out of the shadows and into the limelight, but I’m also excited because I can introduce the series to my daughter as she continues to explore her gaming journey.

All in all, the idea of Phoebe Waller-Bridge ushering in a new era for Tomb Raider is something we should all be excited about. While we wait for more concrete details on the show, now would be a good time to check out the 2023 TV schedule to learn more about the shows that'll soon be available for anyone with an Amazon Prime subscription.

Just a few weeks ago, the Alicia Vikander-led Tomb Raider sequel was revealed to have been cancelled following much speculation about the franchise's future. It's still unclear as to what lies ahead for the property as another studio seeks to gain the rights. But some are already fancasting new actresses for the lead role, and Aubrey Plaza has emerged as a candidate. I can’t imagine a better Lara Croft and, apparently, neither can Edgar Wright. With that, Plaza shared some thoughts on possibly taking over the iconic role

While speaking to Newsweek, the star talked about how famed director Edgar Wright couldn’t get over the visual similarities between Lara Croft and her Emily the Criminal character. She revealed:

I can totally see it. Aubrey Plaza may just be the person to lead a new brand-new iteration of this franchise. The character has already been portrayed on the big screen twice, but maybe the third time’s the charm? Angelina Jolie portrayed Croft twice, once in 2001 and again in 2003. In 2018, Alicia Vikander took over the role for Warner Bros.' reboot.

Though the 2018 film was a moderate box office success, the studio still seemed to be set on making a follow-up. By early 2021, a Tomb Raider sequel was said to be in development, with Lovecraft County creator Misha Green attached to direct. There had been few updates on Alicia Vikander's sequel before it was ultimately scrapped. However, anything can still happen. Edgar Wright seems to have beeen the first to identify the similarities between Croft and the Parks and Recreation alum. Maybe she and Wright could get behind it once the franchise finds a new studio home.

Of course, there's still a question that needs to be asked: Would Aubrey Plaza even be open to playing Lara Croft in another Tomb Raider film? Well, based on her comments in the same interview, she seems willing to give it a go, especially since she's a fan of blockbuster films:

Someone has to make this happen. The visual similarities aside, Aubrey Plaza has more than proven at this point that she's a strong performer who can work within different genres. And quite frankly, it'd be great to see her get more action-centric roles. (Many even believe Plaza could be perfect for some Marvel characters.) On top of all that, she'd love to host the Oscars and become "this generation's Billy Crystal." She's truly a woman who can do it all.

We're just going to have to wait and see if the star does indeed land the lead role in another Tomb Raider reboot. Though after Edgar Wright's observation, it's going to be really hard not to picture anyone else in the role but the Happiest Season alum. Let's hope that she at least gets a shot at an audition at some point in the future.

We may have to wait a while before we get to see the next iteration of Lara Croft but, in the meantime, you can catch Aubrey Plaza in Emily the Criminal, which is playing in theaters now. For more news on recent theatrical releases and upcoming films, check out CinemaBlend's 2022 movie schedule.

As far as video game movies go, 2018’s Tomb Raider performed pretty well, earning better critical reception than the Angelina Jolie-led Tomb Raider movies and making over $274 million worldwide. As such, MGM planned to bring Alicia Vikander back for another round as Lara Croft, but Tomb Raider 2 hasn’t made a lot of progress forward as the years have passed. Well, apparently the sequel has been completely  scrapped due to a bidding war starting for the Tomb Raider film rights.

Word’s come in that MGM had until this past May to officially greenlight Tomb Raider 2, and with that window having passed, the production company has lost the film rights to this popular video game property. The Wrap has heard that “a host” of Hollywood film studios are now putting in bids for these rights. Should another Tomb Raider movie happen elsewhere, it will be another complete reboot, with Alicia Vikander no longer being attached to reprise Lara Croft.

Earlier this year, Embracer Group acquired various assets from Square Enix, including the Tomb Raider franchise and its developer, Crystal Dynamics, for $300 million. Going back to 2011, producer Graham King and his GK Films banner acquired the Tomb Raider film rights, so now GK and Embracer are shopping around for a new place to set up the IP. 

2018’s Tomb Raider was directed by Roar Uthaug and written by Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Alastair Siddons. It followed Alicia Vikander’s Lara Croft embarking on a journey to uncover the mystery of her father’s disappearance, which happened when she was a child. Vikander was joined in the cast by Dominic West, Walton Goggins, Daniel Wu, Kristin Scott Thomas, Derek Jacobi, Hannah John-Kamen and Nick Frost, among others. It was one of a handful of video game-related movies to come out in 2018, with its cohorts include Ready Player One and Rampage.

When Tomb Raider 2 first entered development, Amy Jump was brought in to write the script, and months later, Ben Wheatley, Jump’s husband, signed on to direct. But by early 2021, Lovecraft Country’s Misha Green was tapped to replace both Jump and Wheatley as writher and director. In July of that same year, Green said that she still expected to tackle Tomb Raider 2, but it hadn’t been officially greenlit yet. In the months to follow, it became unclear what exactly was happening with Tomb Raider 2, but now we know that the project has been shelved, and a new beginning is coming for the Tomb Raider film franchise.

It may be a while until we learn what’s next for Tomb Raider in the film world, but once that information is revealed to the public, CinemaBlend will pass that along. Until then, read through our 2022 release schedule and 2023 release schedule to learn what movies will be arriving in the near future.

When it comes to an actor’s job, we often focus on the incredible aspects – such as getting to travel to incredible locations to play characters for a living, filming badass stunt scenes or being recognized by your work by your peers and moviegoers. Alicia Vikander can check off all those things off the list within her career thus far, but recently she got blunt about one aspect of the industry she has felt especially uncomfortable about: nudity and intimate scenes. 

Vikander, who has made waves as the entrancing lead of Ex Machina, our latest Lara Croft in 2018’s Tomb Raider and an actress who frequents other acclaimed movies like The Man From U.N.C.L.E and The Green Knight, shared with Harper’s Bazaar her feelings on shooting nude and sex scenes over the years. In her words:   

Even for Alicia Vikander, who admits to totally owning being in her own skin on sets, she still calls shooting intimate scenes “the worst.” It sounds like it has to do a lot with the protocols on set, with productions having so many moving parts and not having outlined guidelines to protect the actor undressing and simulating sex in front of a busy cast and crew. 

Vikander recalled a moment when she felt she should have been “looked after” but wasn’t. We don’t know what movie she’s referring to, but as the actress shared, she has stripped down for a number of her films over the years including Ex Machina, The Danish Girl, Tulip Fever and Earthquake Bird. 

In recent years, there’s been an uptick in the use of intimacy coordinators on the set of movies and TV shows like Bridgerton where sex and nudity are part of the production. Intimacy coordinators make sure there is context to intimacy in a project, make sure communication takes place among the participants and avenues for reporting of harassment is put in place, along with making sure the scenes include consent, are performed according to previously agreed-upon choreography, per Intimacy Directors International.  

These pillars of safe intimacy were created officially only six years ago, meaning that prior to that many productions were exposed to having less sensitive nude and sex scenes occur on set. One example is the controversial scene in Basic Instinct, where Sharon Stone has since claimed that she was asked to remove her underwear for lighting purposes and assured her genitalia would not be captured, yet in the scene all was seen. The director has refuted her claims. If there had been an intimacy coordinator on set, the he said, she said of it likely wouldn’t still be a conversation. 

Alicia Vikander’s next project is a miniseries called Irma Vep, which will premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival before becoming available to stream with an HBO Max subscription. Next, she’ll reportedly return to Lara Croft in a sequel for Tomb Raider, being written and directed by Lovecraft Country’s Misha Green. 

Hayley Atwell has certainly found her way into some high-profile roles over the years. Most fans probably know her best for her role as Agent Margaret “Peggy” Carter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And right now, she’s primed to make her Mission: Impossible debut in the upcoming seventh installment. Now, the actress has landed another major role in the form of Lara Croft, who she’ll voice in an upcoming Tomb Raider anime series for Netflix.

The Captain America: The First Avenger alum is the first cast member to be formally announced for Netflix’s Tomb Raider adaptation. While few details are actually known about the project, the streamer has confirmed that the show will be written and executive-produced by Tasha Huo. Some anime fans will likely recognize Huo for her prior work on The Witcher: Blood Origin, and she’s also been tapped to pen the script for the upcoming Red Sonja film.

Tomb Raider is arguably one of the most iconic franchises of all time, and it all began with the original video game that was released on Playstation back in 1996. Since then the franchise has grown to include numerous games, a few feature films and even an animated series. So it goes without saying that this new series has quite a legacy to live up to.

Despite this, Hayley Atwell is a strong choice for the role of Lara Croft. We’ve clearly seen that the actress has a knack for playing strong and interesting characters. Nevertheless, she can also bring a vulnerability to any role she plays, which is what ultimately endears her characters to so many people.

Hayley Atwell is the latest in a line of notable actresses who have played the role of Lara Croft over the years. While not the original actress to ever play the character, Angelina Jolie set the live-action standard for the role when she led 2001’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and returned for the 2003 sequel, The Cradle of Life. The Academy Award winner was eventually succeeded by fellow Oscar recipient Alicia Vikander, who made her debut as Croft in 2018 and is currently setting her sights on a sequel. And in the realm of animation, the character was previously voiced by Minnie Driver in the 10-part series Revisioned: Tomb Raider.

At this point in her career, Hayley Atwell is starting to carve out a place for herself in the world of voice acting. She’s mostly voiced Peggy Carter on a number of occasions, so it’ll be somewhat refreshing to see her take on a different role in an animated project.

Hopefully, it won’t be too long before Netflix provides further updates on Hayley Atwell’s Tomb Raider series. I, for one, can’t wait to get that first glimpse of the animated action adventure show.

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Every now and again, an actor or actress comes around and catches the world by storm and quickly shoots to top of the movie industry. We’ve seen these quick ascents in the past, but one of the most impressive examples of this in recent years is the case of Alicia Vikander who went from a relatively unknown Swedish rising star to one of the most talked about names in Hollywood in the span of a couple of years. Thanks to movies like Ex Machina, The Danish Girl, and even Tomb Raider, Vikander has become one of the most prolific stars of our time and doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon, especially with her presence on The Green Knight cast.

Below is a quick list of the best Alicia Vikander movies and how you can watch them whether they’re on streaming services or available for digital rental or purchases (and even old fashion physical media).

The Danish Girl (2015)

One of the best movies on Netflix, Tom Hooper’s 2015 biographical drama The Danish Girl tells the story of early 20th Century artist Einar Wegener (Eddie Redmayne) as he transitions to a woman who identifies herself as Lili Elbe. And while the outside world does not understand or support the artist’s decision to undergo surgery to let go of her male past and begin her life as a woman, Wegener’s wife, Gerda (Alicia Vikander) remains her biggest supporter despite the circumstances. Vikander won an Academy Award for her portrayal of the supportive wife and talented artist who never gave up on Lili through the thick and thin of the whole situation.

Stream The Danish Girl on Netflix.

Rent/Buy The Danish Girl on Amazon.

Buy The Danish Girl on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.

Ex Machina (2015)

Alicia Vikander had already started to build a respectable resumé by the time she showed up in Alex Garland’s 2015 mind-bending sci-fi drama Ex Machina with all its questions about love, reality, and morality, but her portrayal of an android named Ava put her on the map. We’re introduced to Ava after a young programmer named Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) is invited to to the home and research facility of his boss, Nathan (Oscar Isaac), and her presence is immediately felt. What starts out as a Turing test to show off Nathan’s work in artificial intelligence quickly turns into something much more.

Stream Ex Machina on Showtime.

Rent/Buy Ex Machina on Amazon.

Buy Ex Machina on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.

Tomb Raider (2018)

The Tomb Raider video game franchise went through a major tonal and gameplay shift with the 2013 reboot, and so it only made sense for the film franchise of the same name to do something similar when it returned in 2018 after being dormant for 15 years. This more grounded and gritty version of Tomb Raider saw Alicia Vikander take on the role of Lara Croft as she set out to solve the mystery of her father’s (Dominic West) disappearance in a fabled tomb on the Japanese coast. What she finds on the island, however, defies logic and reality as she knows it.

Rent/Buy Tomb Raider on Amazon.

Buy Tomb Raider on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.

Anna Karenina (2012)

In 2012, director Joe Wright had the task of adapting Leo Tolstoy’s 19th Century epic about love and war in the Russian Empire with Anna Karenina. While the heart of the movie focuses on Anna Karenina (Keira Knightley) and her love affair with Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), a movie couldn’t be considered an epic without branching storylines that tell the tale of other characters connected to the central drama. That’s where we find Princess Ekaterina “Kitty” Alexandrovna (Alicia Vikander), who had the eye of Vronsky before Karenina came into the picture. Her story is just as important to overall narrative of Anna Karenina as anyone else's and helped make her into a rising star.

Rent/Buy Anna Karenina on Amazon.

Buy Anna Karenina on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015)

When CIA agent Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) and KGB operative Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer) are forced to put their differences aside during the middle of the Cold War to prevent a mysterious organization from starting nuclear war, we get The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Directed by Guy Ritchie, this 2015 action comedy sees the pair of adversaries find and rescue Gaby Teller (Alicia Vikander), the daughter of a German scientist whose story is actually more remarkable than they knew. Together, the trio set off to prevent the world from falling into chaos before it’s too late.

Rent/Buy The Man from U.N.C.L.E. on Amazon.

Burnt (2015)

John Wells’ 2015 drama, Burnt, tells the story of skilled yet emotionally unstable chef, Adam Jones (Bradley Cooper), as he attempts to earn his third Michelin star while also pulling himself out of series of bad mistakes and setbacks. Together with his trusty kitchen crew, which includes Helene Sweeney (Sienna Miller) and Michel (Omar Sy), Adam reaches new heights professionally, though his personal life remains a mess that is constantly boiling over. Things change, however, when Adam has a run-in with his ex-girlfriend, Anne Marie (Alicia VIkander), who inspires him to finally make the change that could save his career and life.

Stream Burnt on Tubi.

Rent/Buy Burnt on Amazon.

Buy Burnt on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.

The Light Between Oceans (2016)

Derek Cianfrance’s 2016 period drama The Light Between Oceans, which is one of the best movies on Amazon Prime you can rent, centers on World War I veteran Tom Sherbourne (Michael Fassbender) and his wife Isabel (Alicia Vikander), who despite their best efforts, cannot have a child of their own to brighten the dreary life they lead at a remote lighthouse on the Australian coast. Their fortune changes when an infant mysteriously washes ashore, but the arrival brings with it another obstacle for the couple: Should they alert the authorities and find the child’s family or raise the baby as their own.

Rent/Buy The Light Between Oceans on Amazon.

Buy The Light Between Oceans on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.

A Royal Affair (2012)

The 2012 Danish drama A Royal Affair sees Alicia Vikander take on the role of Caroline Matilda, who marries Christian VII (Mikkel Følsgaard), the king of Denmark, but quickly finds herself in a forbidden romance with her husband’s doctor, Johann Friedrich Struensee (Mads Mikkelsen). This affair between the new queen and the royal doctor becomes something much more consequential, as the physician begins to take advantage of his situation and create a larger, and more powerful, role for himself.

Stream A Royal Affair on Hoopla.

Rent/Buy A Royal Affair on Amazon.

Buy A Royal Affair on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.

Testament Of Youth (2014)

The 2014 military drama Testament of Youth tells the remarkable story of Vera Brittain (Alicia Vikander), who abandoned her studies at Oxford to become a war nurse during World War I. Though initially supportive of the war and her country’s role in the matter, the loss of several of the men closest to her causes the young woman to become a pacifist, a philosophy the real Vera Brittain dedicated her life to following the war.

Stream Testament of Youth on Showtime.

Rent/Buy Testament of Youth on Amazon.

Buy Testament of Youth on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.

Earthquake Bird (2019)

Set in 1989 Tokyo, the 2019 Netflix psychological thriller Earthquake Bird sees Alicia Vikander take on the role of Lucy Fly, a translator who finds herself accused of murder when her best friend, Lily Bridges (Riley Keough), goes missing after the two were involved in a love triangle.

Stream Earthquake Bird on Netflix.

With Alicia Vikander’s busy schedule and upcoming 2021 new movie releases, it won’t be long before this list is updated with even more stellar performances, including the still-in-the-works Tomb Raider 2.

It has been a little more than three years since audiences were introduced to Alicia Vikander’s version of the iconic video game adventure seeker Lara Croft in 2018’s Tomb Raider. And while the film lacked the star power of the Angelina Jolie-led adaptations of the early 2000s, Tomb Raider was a moderate success at the box office and with critics, which got a lot of fans asking: When will there be a Tomb Raider 2?

Sometimes simple questions have very complicated and drawn out answers, and that just so happens to be the case with Tomb Raider 2. Below, we will try to offer a simple explanation of the movie's pre-production history and all the players behind the scenes, how a global health crisis hindered that process, and what may come of the movie in the future. Here’s what’s going on with Tomb Raider 2.

In February 2018, Prior To The Release of The First Film, Alicia Vikander Said She ‘Would Love To’ Return For Tomb Raider 2

The first Tomb Raider movie was released in March 2018, but even before the world got to see a more grounded portrayal of Lara Croft, Academy Award-winning actress Alicia Vikander made it clear she was willing to return for more action. A few weeks prior to the release of the film, GameSpot encouraged its Twitter followers to submit questions for a digital Q&A with Vikander, with one person asking if she would be willing to return for a sequel. Vikander responded:

The following month, Tomb Raider was released and brought in nearly $275 million worldwide, according to BoxOfficeMojo, and so it seemed like a sequel was a foregone conclusion.

In September 2019, A March 2021 Release Date For Tomb Raider 2 Was Announced, Along With A Writer And Director

Tomb Raider 2 became even more like a reality in September 2019 when Deadline announced that MGM Studios had not only hired a writer and director for the sequel but also set a March 19, 2021 release date.

The director, Ben Wheatley, had previously helmed the 2015 dystopian action-thriller High-Rise and the black comedy Free Fire, when he signed on the lead Tomb Raider 2. Amy Jump, who is married to Wheatley, was hired to take on the task of penning the script after previously writing both High-Rise and Free Fire.

Within the span of a couple years, however, the release date, director, and writer would all be out of the picture for one reason or another.

In October 2020, Alicia Vikander Revealed That COVID-19 Pandemic Scrapped The Initial Production Schedule

In late 2019, Tomb Raider 2 was beginning to look more and more like a reality with a creative team and release date, but then the COVID-19 pandemic came along and forced the entertainment industry to come to an immediate halt. During an appearance on Good Morning America in October 2020, Alicia Vikander revealed that the Tomb Raider sequel was yet another film to be affected by the global health crisis, explaining that the plan was for production to start earlier in the year but the situation was “now very different” and she was optimistic that principal photography could start up at some point in 2021.

Later In October 2020, MGM Removed Tomb Raider 2 From The Release Schedule

The bad news surrounding Tomb Raider 2 kept coming in October 2020 when TheWrap reported that MGM had removed the title from its release schedule entirely. With that announcement, the Tomb Raider sequel became one of the many 2021 movies to be rescheduled or taken off the calendar entirely. And while no official reason was provided at the time, it can be speculated that the decision was made due to the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on theaters around the world.

In January 2021, Lovecraft Country Creator Misha Green Was Brought On To Write And Direct Tomb Raider 2

The Tomb Raider sequel took a major step forward in January 2021 when Misha Green, who not only wrote and directed Lovecraft Country but served as HBO horror drama’s showrunner in the second half of 2020, was hired to write and direct Tomb Raider 2, per Deadline. Not long after the news broke, Green took to Twitter to provide fans with a response that included a rather vague series of emojis after revealing her favorite games from the Tomb Raider franchise.

The reason behind the original writing-directing pair of Bean Wheatley and Amy Jump stepping away from the project was not revealed at the time of the announcement. How much of the original plan for Tomb Raider 2 remains in the current incarnation was also not revealed.

In May 2021, Misha Green Revealed Tomb Raider 2’s Working Title And An Update On The Script

The good news kept coming for Tomb Raider 2 in May 2021 when Misha Green took to Twitter once more to provide a quick yet significant update for the video game adaptation. In a tweet, Green announced that the first draft of the script had been finished along with a screenshot of its cover, revealing the working title: Tomb Raider: Obsidian. Green also said there was “still a long journey to production.”

In July 2021, Alicia Vikander Said Tomb Raider 2 Wasn’t Greenlit But She Wanted To Return

When promoting the release of The Green Knight, Alicia Vikander told Collider in July 2021 that although the new version of Tomb Raider 2 wasn’t officially greenlit, she wanted to return for a second go, stating:

When asked about the movie’s script, Alicia Vikander revealed that while she had yet to read Misha Green’s first draft, she was “very excited” to check it out in the near future. Expect to hear more about the story and Green’s feature directorial debut in the coming weeks and months.

It is hard to say exactly when we’ll get to see Tomb Raider 2 in action, but maybe there’s a chance it ends up being included in the impressive list of highly anticipated 2022 new movie releases with a few other upcoming video game movies with a lot of potential.

Pretty much every big name actor in Hollywood has that one role they look back on as the role that really pushed their career forward. For Angelina Jolie, that role just might be Lara Croft in the iconic film adaptation of the video game Tomb Raider. It may be one of the most widely recognized female-led adventure franchises; plenty of millennial girls likely grew up wearing their hair in a long braid at some point and wanted to be Lara Croft. Jolie, though, apparently wasn’t so sure that she wanted to be Croft, and she now explains why she almost passed on the role - although it’s safe to say she’s plenty glad she didn’t!

Tomb Raider was one of Angelina Jolie’s first big roles and, while the actress had already won an Oscar, the action fllm thrusted her into true blockbuster territory and labeled her as a strong woman capable of taking on badass roles. In an interview with Collider though, Jolie reveals that she originally didn’t think she would be a good fit to play Lara Croft and explained what convinced her to change her mind and take on the fan-favorite character. Here’s what the actress/producer/director said exactly:

The woman who almost said no to Tomb Raider because the role did not suit her may have existed 20 years ago, but the Angelina Jolie we’ve seen on screen since then couldn’t be more an epitomization of Lara Croft. Today, Jolie is known for doing a lot of her own stunts and has played a number of strong, badass female leads. She’s a figure who has helped pave the way for women in Hollywood and arguably helped open up the action genre for women even further, following in the footsteps of Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hamilton.

By pushing herself to become Lara Croft and finding exactly what she was and is capable of, Angelina Jolie has gone on to not only play strong and daring characters but to write and produce them as well. More recently though, she has gone back to acting, and her character in the recently released film Those Who Wish Me Dead is another perfect example of the strength she portrays.

In Those Who Wish Me Dead (which is now playing in theaters and on HBO Max), Angelina Jolie plays a smokejumper who parachuted into forest fires to help fight them. But when she crosses paths with a boy in need, she finds herself fighting assassins as well as fire. Without Lara Croft, who knows if we would have gotten to see this latest role of Jolie's at all, as the Tomb Raider character seems to have both taken her career to new heights and helped her find the strength within herself.

The Tomb Raider video game franchise has been a mainstay in the industry for nearly 25 years now, first finding a place on Sega Saturn and early Playstation consoles before arriving into the current framework of gaming. Oh, and let's not forget the Hollywood movie adaptations. Most recently, Lara Croft was translated for the big screen with Alicia Vikander playing the globetrotting adventurer for 2018’s Tomb Raider. The actress went through an insane physical transformation for the role that she’ll be gearing up to repeat for the announced sequel.

Alicia Vikander was trained by world-renowned Swedish health and wellness expert Magnus Lygdback, who also got Gal Gadot in shape for Wonder Woman and helped transform Ben Affleck for Batman in the DCEU. The trainer has now shared some of the secrets involved in Alicia Vikander gaining a whopping twelve pounds of muscle for Tomb Raider with his “Magnus Method”:

The Hollywood trainer broke down some of the key elements involved in getting the Oscar-winner fit to play Lara Croft, and it’s really interesting to see the process. Magnus Lygdback said her custom diet is his most requested video thus far, but as he explains on his YouTube channel, it was tailored to her specific lifestyle, metabolism and measurements. Even so, it’s awesome to get a look into the actress’ journey to play the well-known video game character.

Magnus Lygdback explained the three cycles that go into training celebrities when they undergo major physical changes: the build up cycle, cutting cycle and the maintenance cycle, which occurs on the set of the film. That’s right, once actors get fit, they have to maintain it for months on end while also filming day-by-day! It sounds like a ton of work.

The trainer explained that working with Alicia Vikander was a specific challenge because he would not be able to join her during filming in South America. For that reason, Magnus Lygdback had the actress adopt the Ketogenic diet because he felt he could track and control it the easiest while they were apart. The actress was instructed to eat around 1,900 calories a day in a very specifically curated diet, along with her intense training that consisted mainly of strength training with a bit of cardio, mixed martial arts and other stunt training.

Twelve pounds of muscle is a huge amount for Alicia Vikander, especially since the actress is 5 feet 5 inches tall and has a 117-pound frame. The actress was previously a trained ballet dancer, but obviously Lara Croft’s skillset is a whole different game. Previously, Vikander explained that it was decided for her to put on that amount of weight based on the character doing things like pulling herself up from a bomber plane.

Alicia Vikander will return as Lara Croft for a sequel set to be written and directed by Lovecraft Country’s creator, Mischa Green. Soon it will be time for her to get back in video game shape!

One of the most highly anticipated movies coming in the next few months is definitely Godzilla vs. Kong, which released its bonkers and action-packed first trailer this past week ahead of its simultaneous debut on theaters and on HBO Max. Guess what, though? That's not the only place fans will be able to see King Kong on the streaming side of things, as Netflix has announced a new anime series set in that universe, dubbed Skull Island. Additionally, Netflix also revealed it's bringing Lara Croft to TV with an anime-style Tomb Raider series.

Let's break down each of those projects separately. Not that anyone is going to mistake King Kong for Lara Croft, even in the most visually challenging circumstances.

Skull Island

The new series Skull Island will take viewers back to the source of King Kong's existence, as well as those of other mysterious and dangerous monsters. This new chapter will center on a group of shipwrecked characters who are eagerly attempting to find a way off of the island by any means necessary. Something tells me these characters are heading for a series of fairly disturbing experiences.

Fans can probably expect for Skull Island to look and feel like some of Netflix's other anime hits. The studio Powerhouse Animation, which was also behind Castlevania and Blood of Zeus, will be bringing Kong's latest adventure to the small screen. Serving as the head writer and executive producer will be Brian Duffield, who wrote and directed 2020's Spontaneous, starring Katherine Langford and Charlie Plummer, and also penned last year's Love and Monsters, starring Dylan O'Brien and Jessica Henwick.

To note, while the Skull Island series is indeed part of Legendary and WB's Monsterverse, it's not entirely clear if or how this will directly connect to any of the live-action movies. It seems most likely that the anime would be tethered to Jordan Vogt-Roberts' 2017 feature Kong: Skull Island, but that remains to be seen. here's hoping the TV show finds a way to work some voice-acting cameos into the action. Perhaps if Tom Hiddleston and Samuel L. Jackson aren't too busy filming MCU shows for Disney+, they could reprise their Kong-related roles.

Tomb Raider

On the heels of the recent news that Lovecraft Country's TV creator Misha Green is penning the follow-up to Alicia Vikander's 2018 flick Tomb Raider, Netflix has revealed that it's gearing up for its own anime series centering on the dextrous adventurer Lara Croft. At this time, no one has yet been cast to voice the globetrotting heroine, but there are a ton of talented voice actresses that could easily make that role an instant classic.

Unlike Skull Island, the anime take on Tomb Raider will not be directly connected to live-action adaptations, and will exclusively tie back into the best-selling and consistently acclaimed video game series. Specifically, Netflix reported that the new series will take place after the events of 2018's Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which capped off the rebooted trilogy of games. To be expected, Lara Croft's first TV series will feature what will potentially be her greatest adventure yet.

While no animation studio was announced just yet, we do know that Tom Raider will be written and executive produced by Tasha Huo, who served as a writer for Netflix's upcoming The Witcher: Blood Origin live-action spinoff. The streaming service clearly likes to draft new creative teams from other projects it has produced or distributed. We're here for it, either way.

While waiting for more information about when these two shows will hit the TV schedule, let us know in the poll below if you're more excited for Skull Island or Tomb Raider.

The Last Of Us was the video game of all video games that got me into gaming way back in 2013 – specifically because of the story that the game provided. I found myself enriched in this world of infected, and this story of two unlikely allies growing closer throughout their journey across an abandoned and destroyed United States. An unpopular opinion – I still think Last of Us 2 was just as good, if not a little more bitter. But, clearly, I am not the only person who thought this, as HBO and the creators of the game have greenlit the video game to be turned into a full TV series.

While this news excited me, it also got me thinking about what other video games are out there that could possibly be turned into hit TV shows. I mean look at The Witcher (yes, I know it was a book series but most people know about the video games). That was one of Netflix’s biggest hits and a second season is already in production. There is clearly an audience for this type of stuff – and that’s what this list is going to look at today. The best video games that could become the next big thing on TV.

God Of War

I’ll admit that I wasn't into this game at first because I didn’t know much about Norse gods, but holy bologna the story is freaking amazing and the lore is on par with everything. And not only was the most recent entry covering Norse gods, but the older entries in the God of War series covers Greek gods. If this was turned into a TV show, it would be at the heights of Game of Thrones because of how much there is to tell. There have been rumors of a TV show for this genre coming but nothing has been confirmed and that is just a sin.

Red Dead Redemption

The GTA creators are masters in their crafting of open-world games, but Red Dead Redemption is a whole different animal. Their maps are huge, the stories seem to be endless, and besides the main quest-line, the side-quests add a good amount of humor and are a great addition. I personally think with how much there is in just the two games alone, you could easily turn this popular franchise into a TV show like Peaky Blinders or Westworld or something like that. Viewers would love to hear about Arthur Morgan and John Marston and would get lost in their tales. It would be a real wild west hit.

Dark Souls

I feel like Dark Souls is one of those games that literally no one understands because the lore and the story are hidden within the items and the things that you obtain throughout the game. There's no set storyline and the ways in which people speak is a bit confusing. But the gods be damned if the scenery in these games isn't outstandingly beautiful and would make for a beautiful HBO show. And, for something like this, I feel like it would make an excellent TV show because someone else who is producing the show can somehow make sense of the craziness that happens. But not only that, the bosses and the monsters in this are crazy. 

Think of The Witcher, but even more bloody, more dangerous, and add on so much to the story. And each of the bosses are an integral part of the story - if you can piece it together. It truly is one of those games you need a taste for, but I feel would be a great TV show.

Horizon Zero Dawn

Now, this is a game that has some absolutely amazing graphics. When I think of the last generation, it's a good tie between this and God of War because you look at this game and the first thing you think is just 'wow,' which is exactly the word that came out of my mouth the moment I first played this. The plot is really interesting as well, set on Alloy, a girl who lives in a world that it out-run by machines, trying to rediscover her past, which takes the player on a wonderful adventure with crazy bosses and battles - it screams TV show looking at this with how stunning not everything looks, but the connections that you grow with the characters as the game progresses. Another awesome PS4 exclusive that could become the next big hit.

The Legend Of Zelda

There’s been cartoon series’ and comics surrounding this popular Nintendo franchise, but never a TV show. And that’s absolutely bonkers that no television station has picked this up yet. The Legend of Zelda has so many fans worldwide, and with its latest entry being its biggest release ever, the demand has never been larger for more Zelda-themed media. There’s so much to these games, from the tiny villages to the people you meet along the way to the combat, telling that in a TV show would be amazing. Maybe for the likes of something on Netflix, like The Witcher, but it would definitely be worth a shot for viewers who aren’t too familiar with Zelda to be able to visit the kingdom of Hyrule. And besides, who wouldn’t want to play as the legendary character, Link? I’m pretty sure even if you’ve never played Zelda, you’ve at least heard his name. That’s how amazingly known this series is.

Dead Space

Dead Space is a game I didn't think I would enjoy the first time around because, at the time, I was not the biggest horror fan and this one just screamed terrifying the moment I saw the trailer, just because space scares me. But over time, I came to realize that the story and the game are actually really interesting despite the horror aspects. It's completely an alien game that is full of jump scares and nerves and craziness, but with shows like The Walking Dead being popular, I could only imagine what this kind of TV show would be like, except with aliens in space. It's definitely a lot more intense than any other game on this list (in my opinion) but would make for an excellent limited series. I mean, who doesn't love aliens?

Diablo

While there has been some information about a new series about this popular gaming franchise that has arisen, there hasn’t been any confirmed news that has come out since then, and that’s a shame. For people who may not know about Diablo, the series is mainly a dungeon-crawler game and focuses on the battle between humans and the demons called Prime Evils that are led by the titular character, Diablo. The humans are also aided by angels occasionally, making this series a real angels vs demons type of story. The games have become so popular that a fourth entry in the series is in production. It’s a simple kind of story that everyone has heard about, but has never been done on screen. And it would work very well as a TV show with how much has been released.

The Elder Scrolls

This list wouldn’t be complete without a mention of The Elder Scrolls. When I think of this game, I instantly think of something along the lines of Reign or Game of Thrones. The open-world aspect is absolutely phenomenal and the fantasy addition only adds to its beauty. There are mythological creatures, elves, orcs, and so many other things you could possibly imagine. The players are still waiting for the next entry after nearly ten years since the last game’s release (we don’t count that 2020 version). This would be the perfect game to adapt to TV.

Tomb Raider

Yes, there have been movies - such as the one with Angelina Jolie in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and Alicia Vikander in the 2018 reboot, Tomb Raider. And honestly, they have been pretty good and I think they’ve done an okay job with them (everything can be perfected on). But adventure franchises are some of the best things that can be adapted into hit TV shows because truly, half the stuff that happens in Tomb Raider games is so unrealistic but is fun to watch. And who doesn’t want to watch some badass woman take on the perils of her journey and look amazing while doing it? I know it’s been one of my favorite games to replay. And I think it would be perfect for the chance to be adapted to television.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Many people might not know about this game because Fire Emblem was a series that was popularized in Japan, but this latest entry in the series that has been around since 1990 became popular across the world for its gameplay. Not only does it keep the same turn-based gameplay tactics from the previous games, but it adds on time-based challenges, an open-world aspect, and multiple different storylines you can follow. I almost sort of think of this entry as something where you can choose your own ending. Think Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, but with a million different outcomes instead of what you could get with that series.

Fire Emblem even has different ways of which you can have a relationship with someone, and a way of building up friendships. That would be amazing to convert to a streaming-type show where the viewer got to pick what storyline they wanted to follow, maybe even as a social experiment. It would surely never have been done before.

That doesn't mean though that just because this is the end of the list there aren't plenty of other options out there. And, if you feel inclined to play any of these games, most of them are available on all consoles.

Hollywood has its fair share of franchise that produce sequels on a regular basis. The James Bond series. Most comic book superhero adaptations. The Fast & Furious films (for now). But there are also a couple of films that have a passionate fanbase looking for a sequel, even though the movement on said follow-ups isn’t as rapid as some might hope. I’m looking at you, Alita: Battle Angel and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

To that pile, I’d also add Alicia Vikander’s Tomb Raider, an origin story and a reimagining of the classic video game that cast the actress as treasure seeker Lara Croft. Released in 2018, the adventure-thriller followed Croft on one of her first journeys, tracking her father (Dominic West) through the Devil’s Sea. Vikander spoke with Good Morning America to promote her latest film, The Glorias, and mentioned the status of the Tomb Raider sequel, saying:

That’s incredibly encouraging, as Alicia Vikander makes it sound as if she was all but prepared to head back into production on Tomb Raider 2 when the industry had to press pause because of the pandemic. Slowly but surely, though, filming on several major films has resumed – Jurassic World: Dominion, The Batman, and Spider-Man 3 being a handful that come to mind – so it’s possible that the Tomb Raider sequel can get back into a rhythm and carve out a schedule that might get it into theaters in 2022 (or beyond).

You might look at the box office for Tomb Raider 2 and wonder why Warner Bros. would move forward on it. It’s true that the movie didn’t catch fire at the domestic box office, earning $58.2 million. But as the studio likely expected, Alicia Vikander’s Tomb Raider did much better overseas, banking $216 million to push the overall cume to $274 million. Not a slam dunk, but also worthy of a follow-up film, especially for a familiar IP that has a built in audience from the video game.

It’s also wise for Warner Bros. to be divested when it comes to franchises. They can continue to lean heavily into the DC universe, as that tends to pay off dividends at the box office, and in merchandise sales. But investing in other film franchises that can carry different audiences also has strong appeal. You will see WB exploring storytelling in films such as the Fantastic Beasts series, the LEGO series, and animated fare like Scoob! But diving into Tomb Raider makes sense, and Alicia Vikander has us fired up for where this saga can go.

Since video game movies early days adapting properties like Super Mario Bros., they’ve struggled to please both video gamers and a wide audience. But, with the success of Sonic the Hedgehog and with several popular video game movies on the horizon, they could be primed for making comeback. Now Tomb Raider 2 director Ben Wheatley is providing some insight into why he thinks that is.

Back in the 80s and 90s, video games often piggybacked on a success of a movie, adapting movies into video games, like the infamous E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial video game for the Atari 2600. With so much history built up since then, a new generation is starting to do the opposite. Ben Wheatley told Polygon he thinks this could be why video games movies are seeing a new resurgence, but also why it’s difficult to do:

It’s no secret that video game movies have had a long history of failure. For Ben Wheatley, a big part of that is the interaction the video game provides that’s taken away in a movie. Without that, video gamers might always feel like there’s something missing, making it even more challenging for filmmakers to overcome that obstacle.

Despite that, filmmakers like Ben Wheatley are trying to adapt them out of a passion for the medium. For his part, Ben Wheatley, who directed Free Fire and Netflix’s Rebecca, has been tapped to tackle Tomb Raider 2-- the sequel to the Alicia Vikander reboot that received middling reviews at best. He’s got his work cut out for him. Not only will he have to overcome the trials of adapting a video game, but he’ll have to improve on the first and hope audiences will be on board with it even though they weren’t on board with the first, something Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life struggled with.

Tomb Raider 2 could also have either welcome company or brutal competition, depending on how they look at it. There are a ton of new video game movies coming our way. The cast for the new Resident Evil reboot was announced recently and by the looks of it, they knocked it out of the park. On top of that, Tomb Raider 2 will also have to deal with another archaeology video game movie in Tom Holland’s Uncharted.

Still, Ben Wheatley has proven to be a director to watch and seems to be a passionate video gamer that wants to inject video game magic into the movies. He might just be the one to bolster the video game movie renaissance.

Earlier this year Tomb Raider 2 starring Alicia Vikander took a major step forward when MGM and Warner Bros. brought in writer Amy Jump to pen the script for a sequel. Then yesterday, it was officially announced that Amy Jump’s husband and frequent collaborator Free Fire director Ben Wheatley has been hired to direct the sequel. So it looks like Tomb Raider 2 is actually happening, and although it's not scheduled to hit theaters until 2021, people are already talking about how it could bomb.

Looking at the sequel’s prospects, Forbes’ Scott Mendelsohn makes some compelling arguments about what’s working against it, noting how it will release around a month after Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which could wind being huge both domestically and internationally, in China especially.

He also argues that even if Tomb Raider 2 is great, it could suffer because the first film wasn’t, just as Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life was superior to Lara Croft: Tomb Raider but made over $100 million less because audiences felt burnt by the quality of the first movie. Those arguments have merit and could very well prove true, but I’m not interested in refuting them. What is interesting to me is that the outlook for this film, according to some people, is already so bleak.

First, it’s worth looking back at the first film and why the very existence of a sequel is something of a surprise in the first place. Drawing inspiration from the 2013 reboot of the video game series, 2018’s Tomb Raider was directed by The Wave’s Roar Uthaug and starred Alicia Vikander, fresh off her Oscar win, as Lara Croft.

Given those factors, particularly the talents of the leading lady and the updated source material, there was at least some hope that Tomb Raider could break the enduring video game movie curse and, by some accounts, the film did an admirable job at it. But Tomb Raider was not the hit Warner Bros. had hoped and critical response was mixed at best.

Tomb Raider did poorly domestically, only making $58.2 million, although it did release in the massive wake of Black Panther, which no one could have predicted. It fared better overseas and finished its run with $274.6 million worldwide, which is close to three times its $94 million budget. That’s not terrible, it’s in fact OK, but it couldn’t really be called a hit. And with a 52% on Rotten Tomatoes and no obvious swell of fan support championing a sequel, I think it's fair to say Tomb Raider 2 comes as a bit of a surprise.

The performance of the first film, both critically and commercially, is part of why some think that Tomb Raider 2 is DOA. And those factors don’t necessarily inspire confidence in the sequel’s box office prospects, but it is interesting that we are this far out and know so little about Tomb Raider 2 and already its grave is being dug by some. That perception will certainly not help Tomb Raider 2 find its audience and you’ve got to wonder how MGM and WB are viewing this belief that the film will bomb.

Consider this summer’s Dark Phoenix. There was a perception that it would be terrible and while it did itself no favors by living up to that fear, audiences didn’t even give it a chance and it managed to come up short of its low box office forecasts. While we’ll have to wait to see the critical merits of Tomb Raider 2, the fact that its announcement was met with not excitement but doomsaying is less than ideal.

Personally, it seems like outside of superhero movies, franchises don’t really get a chance to build nowadays. A franchise-starter has to hit and hit big and ideally, although not necessarily, succeed critically to have any hopes of getting a sequel. Independent of its budget, Alita: Battle Angel did well at the box office, but likely not well enough to guarantee a sequel. Power Rangers didn’t hit and is already getting rebooted. It seems the thought process is to abandon or start over these franchises when the windfall is not immediate.

I get it from a business perspective, but franchise-building takes time. Iron Man was huge to be sure, but MCU movies weren’t making $1+ billion right away, they had to work toward it. So, it is encouraging to see MGM and Warner Bros. not throwing the baby out with the bathwater here. They wouldn’t be making Tomb Raider 2 if they didn’t have some reason to believe it could succeed.

Maybe it's how well the film has performed on home video and the like or maybe they were really sold on what Amy Jump and Ben Wheatley had in mind for the sequel or maybe it’s something else -- like the fact there's a ton of Lara Croft source material to pull from out there. We are a long ways out, but as of now, confidence in Tomb Raider 2’s box office prospects does not seem to be high, which may not be totally fair. Fortunately, there is plenty of time to change this perception.

Tomb Raider 2 opens in theaters on March 19, 2021. For movies hitting a bit sooner, check out our 2019 release schedule.

Movie sequels, like Thanos, are inevitable. Having said that, movie sequels, are also, usually pretty obvious. Impressive box office performance often leads to immediate rumors that sequels are at least being considered. 2018's Tomb Raider was one of those movies that left itself open to potential franchising, but following a lukewarm box office, nobody was really talking about sequels. And yet, now we're talking about sequels, because Alicia Vikander's Tomb Raider is apparently getting one.

Deadline is reporting that not only is the movie happening, it has a director, in Free Fire's Ben Wheatley, and a release date of March 19, 2021.

In 2018 the Tomb Raider video game franchise was rebooted on the big screen with Alicia Vikander in the lead role as Lara Croft. The movie did decently well at the box office, bringing in just short of $275 million worldwide. Reviews of the movie were lukewarm at best. They were pretty good for "a video game movie" but that's about as good as it got.

Sequels was certainly what people wanted to see from Tomb Raider, but the numbers seemed tough to justify. With a reported production budget of around $100 million, the movie may been slightly profitable, but certainly not to the degree that the powers that be were hoping to see.

It was previously reported that Amy Jump, who collaborated with Ben Weatley on both Free Fire and High Rise, was penning a script, but you'd be forgiven for not even knowing that. Tomb Raider grossed less than $100 million domestically, it just wasn't a movie people were dying to see the first time.

Having said that, the pairing of Ben Weatley and Amy Jump to make this movie is certainly an intriguing idea. The movies they have made together have certainly been unique and have a style all their own. Perhaps that sort of flare is what a property like Tomb Raider needs.

Last year's Tomb Raider (did it seriously only come out last year?) was loosely based on the 2013 Tomb Raider video game, which itself was a reboot of the game series. It acted as an origin story for the character, which saw her shipwrecked on an island and forced to fend for herself in order to survive. That game series has seen two additional entries since then, so there's material to adapt for a new movie if that's the plan, otherwise the movie could go off in a wholly original direction.

I actually really enjoyed the newest Tomb Raider movie, more than most, at least, but even I had sort of missed that a sequel was even in the cards. The movie was fun at the time but I'd sort of forgotten it had even happened. It just wasn't something I was looking for. Now that it's here, I'm not sure what to even do with this information.

The game library for the much-anticipated PlayStation Classic was announced recently, and there was a fair amount of consumers disappointed in what's being offered in the $100 retro console. Put simply, there are quite a few games many would see as integral to the PlayStation 1 experience that are missing in lieu of far less popular games. Here are seven that we believe should've been included in place of some of the lesser offerings, or just included in general.

Tomb Raider

The Spyro and Crash Bandicoot games being kept off the PlayStation Classic lineup was at least understandable given one just recently released a remastered trilogy and the other has one on the way, but there's little excuse for excluding Tomb Raider. The franchise had five titles on the PlayStation alone, with its first three titles in the top 12 of the console's best selling software.

To say it's baffling not one of those titles was considered is an understatement. It's such a glaring exclusion that one has to think there's a specific reason why it didn't make the cut. Until then, Lara Croft fans will have to get their fix playing the rebooted series, which is a good consolation, but not quite the same thing.

Gran Turismo

Leaving Gran Turismo off the PlayStation Classic is almost like if Nintendo left Mario Kart off of the SNES Mini. We say "almost" because it's actually more akin to the SNES Mini not having Super Mario World, as Gran Turismo was the top selling game on the PlayStation. Again, how did Sony keep such a classic title off the final cut?

This one is especially confusing, as the Gran Turismo franchise remains a massively successful franchise to this day. Having the original on the PlayStation Classic might've swayed franchise loyalists to pick it up just to say they have it, and maybe to play a race or two just for nostalgia's sake. Instead, buyers get Ridge Racer Type 4, which didn't crack the top 100 in software sale for the console.

Chrono Cross

To be fair, Chrono Cross may have been considered for the PlayStation Classic RPG fix, but was ultimately beat out by the legendary Final Fantasy VII. Few RPG's can outshine one of the greatest games the Final Fantasy series has to offer, although Chrono Cross could've justified a spot alongside it. Especially given some of its innovative features for an RPG, it's safe to say few would've complained if it appeared.

Chrono Cross would've been a solid choice, mainly for its length and replayability. Multiple endings would mean multiple playthroughs, which would increase the longevity of the PlayStation Classic's usefulness for quite a few. That seems useful when the console it appears on has a limited library and no capability to add games. Perhaps there's a parallel universe where this game is on the roster, and we just need to wait for our other selves to come give it to us.

Silent Hill

Again, this may have been a case where a game would've had a better shot at making the list had there not been a more popular title in the franchise like it. It's hard to believe otherwise, as Silent Hill has been living under the title of "Resident Evil clone" since it was first released in 1999. Despite that, the series still has its fans, as evidenced by the amount of people saddened when Silent Hills was canceled.

As mentioned though, it's far more understandable why Silent Hill was excluded when Resident Evil Director's Cut is in the lineup. The two do have their differences, of course, but the survival horror genre isn't for everyone. Having two on one pre-packaged lineup might've been overkill, although maybe not for diehard horror fans.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater

What better way to relive all that late '90s nostalgia than with a few rounds of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater? Anyone reading this right now is probably subconsciously hearing the game's soundtrack as they read because this game was that popular. For the kids who wanted to be a pro skater, but quickly realized it was a hard thing to master after getting a skateboard for Christmas, this game was the next best thing.

This might be the key to why some have been so disappointed with the PlayStation Classic roster. The lineup has its share of solid games, but few of them evoke the feeling of late '90s nostalgia quite like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater or other games might. After all, part of the fun of owning a classic console is thinking back on one's life when they were first playing those games, right?

Jet Moto

Jet Moto may not have been the best racing series on the PlayStation console, but it had some of the most character. Flying around on hoverbikes and racing on scenic landscapes was visually stunning for the time, and a remake could probably do the same. Unfortunately, Jet Moto is one of those franchises that have been lost in time, which is all the more reason PlayStation Classic should've brought it back.

Granted, there may have been some licensing issues considering the game had big advertisements for Mountain Dew and other brands all throughout. While that added a touch of realism to the game at the time, it'd probably have to be changed by Sony now to avoid any payout to those companies be it legal or otherwise. If it meant we'd be backflips on hoverbikes while going over the edge of a waterfall come December, it would've all been worth it.

Driver

If Tony Hawk's Pro Skater wouldn't have given a PlayStation Classic audience that gaming induced flashback to 1999, Driver certainly would've. Grand Theft Auto certainly won the war between these two franchises, but it goes without saying the original game was much more popular with PlayStation gamers back in the day than the original Grand Theft Auto.

That was then, of course, and this is now. It's hard to dispute having the original Grand Theft Auto, despite its original entry being far removed from the current state of the series, won't catch more eyes than Driver these days. It's also subjective now which one is the better product of the two, although sales numbers will tell you many in the '90s thought it was Driver by a large margin.

Are there any entries we missed, or ones that should've been added? Let us know in the comments below. The PlayStation Classic launches Monday, December 3.

Eidos Montreal and Square Enix are gearing up for the release of Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The upcoming third-person, action-oriented platformer will be making its way to home consoles and PC starting next month in September, but in the interim gamers will be able to catch up on some of Lara Croft's older adventures on the Xbox One. It was recently announced that two classic Tomb Raider games have gone through the process of being made compatible with the Xbox One, and now the Xbox 360 third-person action titles are now available to play for those of you who have an Xbox One or Xbox One S or Xbox One X in your possession.

The news was rolled out by Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb over on his official Twitter account, where it was confirmed that Tomb Raider: Legend and Tomb Raider: Anniversary are both available as backward compatible titles to play on the Xbox One.

The two games are actually chronologically linked, with Tomb Raider: Legend being a remake of the original 1996 game, Tomb Raider. It featured an all-new overhaul of the graphics, and a revamp of the classic gameplay.

Tomb Raider: Legend originally came out 12 years ago for the Xbox 360, PS2, and portable devices. It was a re-imagining of the Tomb Raider series for a new generation of gamer. Interestingly enough, the game still maintained a lot of similitude to the 1996 outing, keeping Lara in her classic gear and maintaining her spy-tier personality. It wasn't quite as drastic as the Tomb Raider reboot that released back in 2013 and was a lot closer to the classic series on the old PSX and PC platforms.

The game still had Lara traversing through trap-filled tombs with lots of 3D platforming puzzles, and taking out giant dinosaurs and other vicious animals using Lara's iconic twin pistols and shotgun. New to the series was the grappling hook and quick-time events to help add some cinematic flair to Tomb Raider: Legend.

The game was followed up with Crystal Dynamics' Tomb Raider: Anniversary, which maintained a similar visual style and characterization of Lara Croft, picking up and maintaining the continuity that was first established with the 2006 outing. Tomb Raider: Anniversary originally came out in 2007, just a year after Legend, and while it received some high marks for its design and gameplay, it failed to catch on sales wise, and it ended up tanking.

The series would have one more go-around before yet another reboot when Underworld released in 2008. However, for those of you who missed out on the other two games, you can play them right now on your Xbox One. If you have the old discs, you can just plop them in and install them, or if you have them attached to your Xbox Live profile, you can simply install them digitally.

Normally the folks over at Honest Trailers only target one movie in each of their videos, but the latest Honest Trailer is an exception. This past spring saw the release of Tomb Raider and Pacific Rim Uprising, the former being a reboot of the Angelina Jolie-led Tomb Raider films (albeit being inspired by the same-named 2013 video game) and the latter being a sequel to the Guillermo del Toro-helmed first round of Jaeger vs. Kaiju action. Because the Honest Trailer folks found Tomb Raider and Pacific Rim Uprising to be "aggressively okay," they've decided to mash their critiques on both movies together rather than separately, which you can watch below.

This Honest Trailer doesn't waste any time tearing into Tomb Raider and Pacific Rim Uprising, declaring that the only reasons these movies were made is because Warner Bros acquired the Tomb Raider intellectual property from Paramount, and Comcast, which owns Universal Pictures, noticed that Pacific Rim over performed in China. But even though their premises are quite different, Tomb Raider and Pacific Rim Uprising to have some similarities, including the main protagonists (Lara Croft and Jake Pentecost) dealing with "daddy issues" and "Japanese MacGuffins," as well as the movies opening with fun sequences, but descending into "by-the-numbers action."

Critically speaking, Tomb Raider and Pacific Rim Uprising both earned mixed reception overall, and while Tomb Raider managed to perform decently at the box office, earning over $273 million worldwide off a $90 million budget, Pacific Rim Uprising's box office haul wasn't quite as admirable, only taking in $290 million worldwide, more than $100 million less than its predecessor. As this Honest Trailer posits, both movies might have benefitted from having a little more of what the other movie had in excess, i.e. Pacific Rim Uprising should have been grounded more in reality and Tomb Raider should have had more fantastical elements and "fun." It's not like either of these movies were theatrical disasters by any means, but rather than going down in film history as classics, Tomb Raider and Pacific Rim Uprising will primarily be found either as Redbox rentals or on the FX channel on a Sunday afternoon.

As things stand right now, it's unclear whether Tomb Raider or Pacific Rim Uprising will get sequels, though they both ended with teases for a follow-up adventure. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for updates on either franchise, and in the meantime, feel free to look through our 2018 release schedule to find out what movies are coming out later this year.

Everyone believes that games could definitely be better, in one way or another. Some people want more options, some people more narrative, some want more diverse characters, and others believe that games need to take risks in ways you may not expect.

Rhianna Pratchett, the writer for the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot and the follow-up sequel Rise of the Tomb Raider, explained to Gamespot that older fictional females could be used in games more often...

Pratchett talked about this aspect of game design due to the industry coming off of the two big blockbuster successes, The Last of Us and the recent reboot of God of War, both of which are stories centered around father/child relationships featuring older men.

After working on the last two Tomb Raider titles Pratchett stepped away from the upcoming game Shadow of the Tomb Raider, allowing her to reflect more on the "what ifs" and possibilities of the franchise and the gaming industry in general. In fact, Pratchett originally -- and lightly -- pitched the idea of having Lara Croft as an older, wiser, embittered mother with a kid. Some people liked the idea but a lot of gamers didn't like the concept of Lara Croft as a mother running around with a child.

Uncharted 4 featured an older Nate and Elena, _but they didn't have kids with them during the adventure, and they weren't so old as to be considered "grizzled," but more like George Clooney-in-Ocean's Eleven old. Drake was slightly more grayed and a little more wrinkled, but he was still unrealistically carefree, charismatic and handsome. Elena, meanwhile, didn't look too much older than how she appeared in _Uncharted 3.

There are two other exceptions that fit the bill... Metal Gear Solid 4 and Splinter Cell: Conviction. Both games featured older, grizzled protagonists, as Pratchett mentioned, and both went on to have blockbuster sales. Interestingly enough, both series also rewound the clock on their subsequent outings, with Ubisoft opting to go for a Sam Fisher that was depicted as half the age he was supposed to be in Splinter Cell: Blacklist, and Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain went back in time to give gamers a look at a grizzled but slightly younger Big Boss. So, even then, the "old guy" syndrome was reversed for the follow-up sequels.

Ubisoft did try something fresh with Assassin's Creed: Syndicate, and the expansion pack centered around an older, grizzled Evie Frye. However, she, too, was childless; but, I can't imagine how well it would work out if she tried to parkour across the London rooftops with a kid in tow.

There's also the issue with the general audience. Pratchett points to movies and television featuring older men and women regularly depicted as main characters, but in games centered around running, jumping, shooting and fighting, it gets a little tougher to pull off the older character without some sci-fi element being involved to explain how they're able to accomplish such feats.

There are some games outside the blockbuster genre that do feature older men and women as playable heroes, or playing as characters taking care of kids, such as the titles made by Telltale Games, or independent point-and-click titles. But it's true that the blockbusters focus more on younger characters with mainstream appeal, and selling content to younger audiences.

Heck, God of War has had criticisms from some gamers about how annoying Kratos' son Atreus is and how they wanted to remove him from the game. Even Conan O'Brien and Bill Hader joked about wanting to kill the kid because they found him annoying.

If game developers decide to do more parent-child stories with older, grizzled characters, they'll have to find that fine balance between making the kid necessary to the narrative and ensuring the kid isn't disruptive to the gameplay.

The 3D experience, while not essential to all Hollywood blockbusters, can be something that elevates what would have been just another theatrical experience, into something truly spectacular. Films like Avatar, The Martian and even Doctor Strange have used the medium to fantastic results, making us truly believe in the magic of the third dimension. 2018 already promises to be a pretty big year for movies in general, but the 3D playing field looks like it's going to be just as competitive, if not more so, than that very measure.

Which is why it's a good idea to have a handy guide that'll show you when your favorites will be headed to the big screen, in beautiful 3D picture! Now keep in mind, the following line-up is subject to both release date changes, as well as confirmation of whether or not a 3D presentation will be on the market. That in mind, here are the films that look to be popping out of theater screens, and into the faces of movie-goers in 2018!

Black Panther -- Friday, February 16th

A Wrinkle In Time -- Friday, March 9th

Tomb Raider -- Friday, March 16th

Sherlock Gnomes -- Friday, March 23rd

Pacific Rim: Uprising -- Friday, March 23rd

Ready Player One -- Wednesday, March 28th

Rampage -- Friday, April 13th

Avengers: Infinity War -- Friday, April 27th

Solo: A Star Wars Story -- Friday, May 25th

The Incredibles 2 -- Friday, June 15th

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom -- Friday, June 22nd

Ant-Man and The Wasp -- Friday, July 6th

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation -- Friday, July 13th

Skyscraper -- Friday, July 13th

Mission: Impossible - Fallout -- Friday, July 27th

The Meg -- Friday, August 10th

Alpha -- Friday, August 17th

Smallfoot -- Friday, September 28th

Venom -- Friday, October 5th

Disney's The Nutcracker and the Four Realms -- Friday, November 2nd

Dr. Seuss' The Grinch -- Friday, November 9th

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald -- Friday, November 16th

Ralph Breaks The Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 -- Wednesday, November 21th

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse -- Friday, December 14th

Mortal Engines -- Friday, December 14th

Aquaman -- Friday, December 21st

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In recent years, Steven Spielberg has struggled to bring in mass audiences for the opening weekends of his films, but Ready Player One has done a nice job stopping that unfortunate streak in its path. The new movie not only took the top spot for the last three days, but is Spielberg's biggest three day opener in a decade. Check out the figures as well as the rest of the top 10 in the chart below, and join me for analysis after!

Steven Spielberg has certainly made some interesting and great films in the last 10 years, but none of them have really carried need-to-see buzz with them into theaters. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull remains the only title on the filmmaker's resume to hit nine figures - and that was back in 2008. Since then there's been The Adventures of Tintin, War Horse, Lincoln, Bridge of Spies, The BFG, and The Post, and none of them cracked $30 million when put into wide release (Lincoln came closest with $25 million). That makes Ready Player One's numbers significant - even though $41.2 million in three days isn't really spectacular by modern blockbuster standards.

Perhaps the best news of all is that Ready Player One could wind up having some good legs as we move through April. Professional critics have been mostly positive about the movie, ultimately landing it with a 76% on Rotten Tomatoes, and the "A-" posted on CinemaScore suggests that audiences are digging it as well. When you factor in foreign territories - where its already pulled in $128 million - and the boost it got from opening a few days early (explaining the difference between weekend gross and total gross), the film might wind up with a total global pull that actually justifies the enormous $175 million reported budget.

Unlike Spielberg, Tyler Perry has consistently proven in recent years that he can bring in crowds, and Acrimony can definitely be called a success. In comparison to Ready Player One's $41.2 million, the new movie's $17.1 million may not look like much, but then you have to factor in the theater count. Acrimony was shown in nearly half the number of cinemas as its chief competitor, and still managed an impressive $8,524.42 per theater average (Ready Player One made $9,733.11 per screen). It's not exactly Madea Goes To Jail, which actually made $41 million on 2,032 theaters in 2009, but it's not too shabby for a film that wasn't screened in advance for critics.

Clearly Ryan Coogler's Black Panther is continuing to kick ass as well, but deserving special mention is Andrew and Jon Erwin's I Can Only Imagine. A faith-based movie based on the song of the same name by the band MercyMe, the feature opened three weeks ago, and has done a nice job staying in the Top 5. It fell behind Tomb Raider when it first came out, starting in third place, but both that film and Pacific Rim Uprising have now fallen behind it on the charts (Pacific Rim Uprising taking a brutal fall to fifth place with a 67 percent drop in its second week). The movie isn't getting any play in foreign markets, but making $55 million domestically so far with a $7 million budget is nothing to shake a stick at.

The box office landscape will completely change at the end of the month with the release of The Avengers: Infinity War, but we're not quite there yet. That said, this week will see a new foursome debut in theaters, including the raunchy comedy Blockers; the period drama Chappaquiddick; the inspirational true story-based The Miracle Season, and the horrifying A Quiet Place. Come back next Sunday to see the refreshed Top 10!

Ryan Coogler's Black Panther spent more than a month at the top of the box office - but we always knew this weekend would come. The Marvel film managed to best many competitors, but the move to the number two slot was inevitable. Now we have a brand new box office champion, and its name is Pacific Rim Uprising. Check out the totals for it and the rest of the field in the chart below, and join me for analysis after!

As you can see, Black Panther experienced another soft drop, but it was enough to allow Pacific Rim Uprising to be the first new title to hold the top of the weekend box office since February 16th. Unfortunately, that's really the best way that the news can be framed, as the numbers aren't exactly spectacular. The movie was given a $150 million budget by the teams at Legendary Pictures and Universal, and $28 million can't be the number they were hoping to see after three days. Both critics and audiences appear to be divided on the film, and it's left it in a nebulous zone. At this point, it's hard to say if the film will ultimately be deemed successful on the domestic front.

Of course, at this point it should be recognized that this is basically exactly what happened with the first Pacific Rim back in the summer of 2013. That movie also didn't open spectacularly ($37.2 million), and by the end of its run only pulled in a little over $100 million. The reason why we got a sequel is because the international market absolutely fell in love with the Gullermo del Toro creation, and brought the global grosses up over $400 million. Pacific Rim Uprising has already made north of $120 million in foreign markets, and they will likely end up making the blockbuster a win from a financial standpoint.

Pacific Rim Uprising was certainly the most high-profile new release this past weekend, but you'll notice that three other fresh titles managed to make it on to the chart as well. Sherlock Gnomes - arriving a full seven years after Gnomeo & Juliet - performed the best of the trio, and at the very least made it into double digits... but it still made less than half of what the original did (possibly something to do with the lack of marketing). Meanwhile, Paul, Apostle of Christ made its entire budget back, and the tear-jerker Midnight Sun squeaked by Steven Soderbergh's Unsane to make it on to the chart. You probably shouldn't expect to hear anything more about these titles as we make our way into April.

I would also be remiss if I didn't use this platform to recognize the most recent awesome achievement made by Black Panther this weekend. Thanks to its $16.6 million take, the domestic total has been pushed up to $630.9 million, making it the most successful comic book movie in the history of the domestic box office. On the all-time charts here in the states it has passed Joss Whedon's The Avengers to become the fifth most successful release of all time, and next has Colin Trevorrow's Jurassic World ($652 million) in its sights. It remains a bit lower on the worldwide rankings - specifically at number 12 - but it's still not entirely clear where it will end up by the time it leaves theaters.

Coming up we have the sequel God's Not Dead: A Light In Darkness, and Tyler Perry's Acrimony - but the big new release this week is definitely Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One. I'll be back next Sunday to see how Friday's new releases shake things up, so join me then!

Hollywood has been working for years to try and turn successful video games into successful movies. While they have been met with limited success, these studios have yet to really make a movie that has won over audiences on a broad scale. The most recent effort, Tomb Raider, was not the first great video game movie that so many of us have been waiting for, but it was the closest that we have come so far, and it was clearly a step in the right direction. It certainly qualifies as the best movie based on a game so far.

Tomb Raider wasn't perfect, but it was good. That by itself puts the movie above nearly all its competition. There are several things that Tomb Raider did right in making the transition from the video game to the theatrical release. Here are a few of them.

A Strong Lead Performance

If there's one thing that most of the reviews have agreed on, even those that didn't love the film, it's that whatever faults Tomb Raider has, Alicia Vikander is not one of them. The actress puts forth a strong performance as the new Lara Croft and is able to make her a believable action hero while also making her a relatable character. This is a Lara Croft you want to see overcome the odds, and you want to see just how she does it. It's possibly the best performance ever in a video game based film. She not phoning it in and she's not over the top. This is an "action hero" character to be sure, but not a character from a video game who is all powerful. This is what happens when you talk Oscar winners into playing video game characters.

It's A Real Adaptation

Previous video game movies have frequently taken the key characters and elements of a game and created a mostly original story. In many cases, this is necessary because actual narrative elements in the games being adapted were minor, if they existed at all. Tomb Raider, however, is a true adaptation of the plot of the 2013 video game of the same name. The movie takes creative liberties and does make changes, but generally the story follows the one created by Rhianna Pratchett for the game, and honestly, the places where it changes that story the most is where the movie falters. Direct adaptations are not necessary to make good movies, but this is a sign that video game stories have evolved to a point where real adaptation is possible where it really wasn't before. This is a movie truly based on a video game, not just borrowing bits and pieces, and it's better for it.

A Simple Story Helps

One of the criticisms of Tomb Raider has been that the story isn't anything we haven't seen before, and this is true, but in many ways that helps the movie. Video games are designed to take players significantly more hours to complete than your average film. That allows games to craft massive worlds while still giving them the depth and explanation they require. Tomb Raider is more grounded in reality, even more so than the game it is based on, but that means it has less it needs to explain to the audience. We've seen this before, so we don't need tedious info dumps to explain the world that we're in. This allows the film to focus on the characters and the action.

The Competition Isn't Great

Ok, so the fact is that part of the reason that Tomb Raider is the best video game movie yet created is that the competition isn't that tough. There have been some decent game movies in the past, but even the decent ones have serious problems, and while Tomb Raider isn't perfect, it overcomes most of the problems we've seen before. The story may be none too original, but it's a story that works. It doesn't require the audience to be familiar with the game. It's a solid action movie with some real highlights. We may still be waiting for a truly great video game movie, but at least now we have a good one.

Alicia Vikander has officially stepped into the boots of the young and inexperienced Lara Croft for Roar Uthaug's Tomb Raider and taken her place in the Hollywood pantheon as a new action icon. Though critics have not showered the film with universal acclaim yet, there seems to be a consensus that Vikander delivers a scene-stealing performance as the badass heroine. With that in mind, the debut of Tomb Raider naturally raises one crucial question: should Alicia Vikander double down and make Tomb Raider 2? Well, as it turns out, the answer to that question is a hard "yes!"

As an origin story exploring the birth of the Lara Croft that fans know and love, Tomb Raider has to shoulder quite a bit of exposition to get us up-to-speed. This tends to slow down the first act of the current film, as it puts all of the pieces in place. However, once Tomb Raider actually gets going and sends Lara on her mission to find out the truth behind her father's disappearance, the film kicks into a higher gear and delivers a near-perfect adaptation of the rebooted games. We finally have a video game film that seems to understand the formula behind its source material, and with a proper world established, we could see the Tomb Raider franchise continue to dissect that video game Lara in a way that fans have waited decades to see.

Warning: spoilers ahead for Tomb Raider! Read ahead at your own risk!

There's also the fact that Tomb Raider ends with the promise of more story for Lara Croft. By the time the origin story concludes, we understand that Trinity has infiltrated the highest levels of Croft Holdings, with Lara now aware that Ana Miller (Kristin Scott Thomas) is a wolf in sheep's clothing who wants to use the company for her own nefarious purposes. Tomb Raider's ending is the definition of a cliffhanger, and this new incarnation of Lara deserves more films to explore that story.

Moreover, we need to say that a refusal to return to this Tomb Raider landscape would ultimately waste Alicia Vikander's fantastic work building this character. The Oscar-winner threw herself into the creation of this Lara; between her physical transformation and her commitment to the character's emotional core, audiences have discovered one of the most compelling action movie heroes in recent memory.

In fact, at one point during Tomb Raider's run, Lara even makes a crack about not being a superhero, and while it seems like a simple one-off line, it actually highlights why Tomb Raider works so well. In a landscape dominated by films from the Marvel Cinematic Universe or the DCEU, it's genuinely refreshing to get a film that doesn't feature a hero who shrugs off bullets or wears a cape. Alicia Vikander's Lara screams in pain when she gets hurt, she barely overcomes her enemies in combat, and the burgeoning badass continually makes mistakes that she needs to learn from during her mission. She's a heroine with so much more room to grow and evolve, and a hypothetical Tomb Raider 2 could inch the dial forward ever-so-slightly by finally allowing her to fire her two iconic handguns.

Beyond the sheer potential for story in the newly-rebooted Tomb Raider universe, it's also worth addressing the fact that there's financial incentive to keep a sequel in mind. Domestically, Tomb Raider wasn't able to beat Black Panther at the box office, but the video game adaptation's international run is going quite well. As of right now, Tomb Raider has cleared its $94 million production budget and has thus far raked in roughly $126 million globally, which will likely go up in the coming days. Money talks, and the international success of Tomb Raider seems to indicate that a sequel could similarly serve as a global cash cow for Warner Bros.

CinemaBlend will bring you more information related to Tomb Raider and the possibility of a sequel getting made as more details become available to us. For now, check out our full review of the film, keep an eye out for all of our up-to-date coverage on it, and check it out in theaters for yourself to see the latest addition to the video game film genre!

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The latest attempt to jump-start the video game movie renaissance is Tomb Raider, which hit theaters this weekend. Despite a valiant effort, the film still came up short at the box office, coming in second place to the Black Panther juggernaut. Tomb Raider made $23.5 million domestically in its opening weekend, but that doesn't tell the whole story. The ever more important foreign box office can play a huge role in a film's success or failure, and Tomb Raider is doing quite well internationally, raking in $102.5 million in its opening frame.

According to Box Office Mojo, the gritty reboot of gaming's most recognizable heroine currently sits at $126 million worldwide after its first weekend in release. The domestic haul was about in line with pre-release expectations, but Black Panther continues to reign supreme with incredible staying power, thus denying Tomb Raider the opportunity to slap the '#1 Movie in America' tag on post-release TV spots. Regardless, America is only part of the overall equation and although foreign markets aren't always as profitable as domestic ones, $102.5 million doesn't seem like a bad start for Lara Croft.

Tomb Raider did especially well in China, taking in $41.1 million on 15,500 screens according to Variety. Roar Uthaug's reboot accounted for nearly 50% of the box office among the top five films in that country. Even more impressive is how its opening weekend performance in China compares to two other worldwide smashes, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Wonder Woman, which earned $39.2 million and $37.6 million respectively when they opened there. Jumanji wound up making $77.9 million overall in China while Wonder Woman took in $90.4 million. If Tomb Raider has a similar final tally in China, it would go a long way towards putting this movie in the black.

While far from an indie flick, as a blockbuster, Tomb Raider had a pretty modest production budget of $94 million. Its domestic showing wasn't even enough to win its opening weekend, but this strong foreign start for Tomb Raider is at least a positive sign for those hoping for more of Alicia Vikander's Lara Croft. The film didn't fare great with critics and currently sits at a 50% on Rotten Tomatoes. That said, Tomb Raider's 50% is still enough for it to take the throne as the best reviewed video game movie. Not exactly the highest bar to clear, but its a step in the right direction and shows that there are positives to be taken from this reboot. For those who prefer their video game characters in their original medium, a new Lara Croft video game, Shadow of the Tomb Raider was just announced for release later this year.

Tomb Raider is in theaters now, check out our review and come back after you've seen it and let us know what you thought.

The weekend will come when Black Panther isn't the king of the box office, but this is not that weekend. In its fifth week of release, there was a possibility, however slight, that Disney's Black Panther might finally lose its box office crown to the premiering Tomb Raider starring Alicia Vikander, if only because Black Panther 's weekend totals had dropped enough over the last month. While Lara Croft gave it her best effort, it just wasn't quite enough, and Black Panther remained on top. Check out the complete top 10 below, then we'll break down the numbers.

For the second straight weekend, Black Panther sneaks out another box office win over a challenger that put up a significant, but not sufficient, box office total. Last weekend A Wrinkle in TIme put up a box office number that would have been enough to win this weekend, but still fell short to Black Panther. Panther's box office fell by a third compared to last weekend, but it still ended up with enough win for the fifth straight weekend by adding another $27 million to its total, bringing its domestic total in five weeks to over $600 million.

Black Panther now sits in striking distance of becoming the biggest comic book movie ever. Marvel's The Avengers is currently the domestic box office champ with $623 million, but will less than $20 million now separating it and Panther one has to wonder if next weekend will represent a huge moment for Marvel's newest hero. Everybody was expecting Marvel's big team-up event Avengers: Infinity War to be the one that would set all the box office records, but now it seems that to do that, it's going to have to beat Black Panther less than three months after it set all the records.

Tomb Raider was the major tentpole release this weekend with a big movie based on a popular video game franchise opening in nearly 4,000 theaters. If anybody was going to dethrone Black Panther this weekend it was going to be Tomb Raider, unfortunately, the new film was only able to muster $23 million at the domestic box office. For a movie with a budget in the neighborhood of $100 million, that total is dangerously low, although the international box office did come to Tomb Raider's aid with an additional $102 million, which will likely help keep the movie above water.

A more surprising result was the third-place finish for I Can Only Imagine. The faith-based feature was only released in half as many theaters as most of the rest of the top 10, but it was still able to garner a strong $17 million, putting it ahead of both A Wrinkle in Time, which dropped 50% from its opening weekend to bring in an additional $16 million, and the opening of Love, Simon which did $11.5 million, a strong showing for a small movie. With Simon 's nearly non-existent budget, the romance is already a success.

The other release for the weekend, the hostage drama 7 Days in Entebbe, failed to break the top ten, bringing in only $1.6 million which was only good enough for 13th place. Although, the film opened in less than 1,000 theaters, which is certainly responsible for part of the showing.

Black Panther has another piece of blockbuster competition coming next weekend in the form of Pacific Rim: Uprising. The first film in the franchise brought in nearly $40 million during its opening weekend in 2013, so it's a strong contender to finally end Marvel's streak at the top. Other films set to release on Friday include the Gnomeo and Juliet sequel Sherlock Gnomes, romantic drama Midnight Sun, thriller Unsane, and another film looking to be popular with the faith-based audience Paul, Apostle of Christ. We'll find out next Sunday if Black Panther finally gives up the crown.

Making her third leap to the big screen, courtesy of a cinematic reboot, Lara Croft is back in action and a Tomb Raider will rise! But is this would-be blockbuster a true successor to the throne, or is it back to the drawing board for the Croft legacy, and video game films overall? Well, that's what we're here to find out, as it's time to rate and discuss Tomb Raider with yo. If you've seen the film, feel free to head on in. However, if you haven't, and would like to avoid any spoilers, now's the time to turn back.

Typically, a film adapted from a best selling game would be ripe for critical panning, as we've seen with such films as the Resident Evil franchise. That bit of history in mind, it seems like the new Tomb Raider has made a home on the more generous side of the critical scale. However, in our official review on the film, our Sean O'Connell still walked away from the film with some reservations. In particular, his opinion of the film came down to the following:

With that in mind, it's time to move onto the portion of this feature. This is where we ask you, the audience, to answer some discussion questions that pertain to Tomb Raider and how the film fares in your opinion. After seeing the film, feel free to answer the following questions in the comments section at the end.

Along with your answers to those questions, we'd like you to rate how much you enjoyed Tomb Raider on a scale of 0 to 5. Take our poll below to record your rating, and don't forget to share your result alongside your answers to the discussion questions above.

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Before we leave you for the weekend, we'd like to suggest further reading to quench your thirst for Tomb Raider content. In particular, our own Conner Schwerdtfeger spoke with Alicia Vikander about what she thought about the alleged "video game curse" when it comes to movies such as this one. Also, Vikander admitted to one particular aspect of Tomb Raider's production being the hardest for her to complete, which you can also read about through our coverage. And finally, if you're curious about whether or not Angelina Jolie was a natural choice for the role of Lara Croft the first time out, the director of the first film - Simon West - recently admitted to his feelings on the matter.

The following contains spoilers for the new Tomb Raider movie as well as the 2013 video game of the same name.

Today Tomb Raider hits theaters and Hollywood once again attempts to adapt a video game into a successful movie. While most video game movies tend to take key characters and elements and use them to create an original story, this movie is much more an adaptation of the 2013 Tomb Raider video game, which rebooted the franchise with a more realistic protagonist. The game deals with Lara Croft getting shipwrecked on a mysterious island and fighting to survive against the opposition she finds there. The movie tells the same basic story, but the rest is very different.

As with any adaptation, many elements have been modified or replaced in the shift from a video game to big screen tentpole. Here are the biggest differences between the new Tomb Raider movie and the video game it's based on.

The Backstory

The movie opens with Lara Croft working out in a gym before going to work as a bike messenger/delivery person. We get to see her life at home and the sort of person that she is before she heads off on her adventure. The game starts off with the action immediately, opening with the shipwreck that ends Act I of the movie. The game gives us background later in the form of video footage recorded before the wreck, which Lara watches at a few points, as well as through conversations with other characters. We only see what Lara is capable of as she does it, or since it's a game, as the player does it.

Lara's Father

The inciting incident of the new Tomb Raider movie is the fact that Lara Croft discovers what her father was doing just before he disappeared, leading her to follow in his footsteps and head for the island of Yamati. In the game, Lara's father is only mentioned in conversation, he is not a character himself. It's clear that he's dead, though what happened to him is not revealed until the sequel game Rise of the Tomb Raider. The trip to Yamati in the game is undertaken as a simple archeological expedition based on Lara's theory of where a lost civilization may be found. It just happens to go sideways.

The Motivations

In the film, Lara Croft ends up traveling to Yamati with Lu Ren, the son of the man who joined her father on the same trip. In the game, Lara is a member of an entire crew of people who end up shipwrecked. Many of them are old friends of Lara's father. One is actually a reality TV personality who is filming the expedition to further his own career. Rescuing them and getting off the island is actually Lara's primary goal throughout most of the game. Figuring out what's going on with the long-dead queen Himiko is simply a means to that end. She mostly succeeds, though some members of the crew never make it out.

Mathias

Mathias is the main antagonist in the Tomb Raider movie and is played by the great Walton Goggins. Mathias is also the main bad guy in the video game, but the two characters couldn't be more different. In the game, Mathias is a man who, like Lara, had been shipwrecked on Yamati, only he's been there for decades. Storms have caused hundreds of people to end up on the island over the years and they've also kept anybody from leaving, as they seem to begin anytime an attempted escape takes place. Mathias has already "found" Himiko by the time we meet him in the game, his only goal is to find a way off the island, and he believes he's found one when he kidnaps a friend of Lara. In the film, Mathias is a member of an organization called Trinity who has left him stranded on the island until he completes his mission of finding the tomb.

Trinity

And speaking of Trinity, the organization that is at the heart of all of Lara's problems in the Tomb Raider movie is part of the video game franchise and it exists as a very similar entity. However, Trinity only becomes a major issue in the sequel game Rise of the Tomb Raider. The only way that you ever hear the name Trinity in the 2013 game is if you pick up enough collectible objects over the course of the game to unlock some hidden messages, even then what Trinity is, is not clear to Lara. Mathias is not part of Trinity in the game, and in fact, the info you do get in the game tells you Trinity actually supports killing Mathias and destroying the Sun Queen, rather than finding her, because she's a potential threat to them.

The Tomb

It's an interesting aspect of the game that rebooted a series called Tomb Raider, but at no point in the game are you actually required to raid any tombs. There are tombs in the game, but they're optional side quests. In the game, Himiko's body is discovered in the middle of the game, and it's just sort of happened upon accidentally. There are no traps or puzzles standing between Lara and the queen. The climactic part of the game has you scale a mountain in the snow to rescue a friend rather than spelunking into a cave inside a mountain.

Himiko

The Tomb Raider movie plays with the idea that Himiko was some sort of supernatural force throughout its run, but in the end, it turns out that there is no actual magic taking place. That's quite the opposite of the game. There, Himiko was a near-immortal queen who survived for centuries by transferring her life force from one body to another. However, one such transfer did not go as planned and Himiko's soul was left, alive, but inside a corpse.. She has been causing storms that keep people from leaving the island ever since until she can be presented with a new vessel to inhabit. lara never believes in the magic in the film anyway, though she has no problem accepting the supernatural explanation in the game.

The following contains minor spoilers for Tomb Raider.

Alicia Vikander has talked at length about the physical work that she did in order to get just the right look for Tomb Raider. However, she told us why it was so important for the film that she do it. Vikander is a trained dancer and so she's already fit and athletic, but she told CinemaBlend that, for Tomb Raider, it was necessary that she be physically strong in order to make the things Lara Croft does in the movie look plausible. According to Vikander...

Lara Croft finds herself in over her head in Tomb Raider, shipwrecked on an island with few resources to aid her. However, she does have her natural abilities which go a long way in helping her overcome the obstacles. In fact, the first act of the movie basically exists to show where Lara's physical strength comes from so that it makes sense to see her use it later on. She makes her living on her bicycle, which keeps her fit, but that's not all she does.

Of course, building the 12 pounds of muscle that Alicia Vikander put on in order to look like a realistic physical threat takes work. In addition to the exercise, the diet she was on was quite specific, limiting what foods she was allowed to eat. Vikander told us that the thing she missed most was carbs, leading to her eating some foods more often on her "cheat days" than she normally would, simply because she wasn't allowed to have them otherwise.

At least the weight training wasn't entirely painful as pizza was an option once a week. There's no denying that Lara Croft looks like she's capable of kicking some ass and doing some pretty impressive physical work that the plot of Tomb Raider requires. Tomb Raider is in theaters now.

If there's one movie genre that is still waiting for its first wild success, its video game adaptations. Movies based off of popular gaming franchise have done historically terrible, from 1993's Super Mario Brothers to the recent attempt at an Assassin's Creed film. Warner Bros. is trying to change this with Tomb Raider, based off of the video game series of the same name. The new blockbuster will be more in line with the newest games, and looks wholly different from the previous franchise led by Angelina Jolie. Many fans were hoping Jolie might pop up in a cameo, although sadly it didn't come to fruition. CinemaBlend's Conner Schwerdtfeger recently spoke to producer Graham King, who revealed why Angelina didn't have a role in Tomb Raider. He said,

It looks like there just wasn't an organic way to work Angelina Jolie into the narrative of Tomb Raider. While fans would have loved to see her recognize Alicia Vikander as the new Lara Croft, there wasn't a way to put the Oscar winning actress into the new sequel. Plus, who knows of Angelina would even want to appear? After all, she famously departed the franchise after the less than stellar outing of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life.

Perhaps the most obvious choice for a possible role for Angelina Jolie would be to play Ana Miller, who is one of Lara's father's associates. Played in the new film by British actress Dame Kristin Scott Thomas, Ana has a throughline in the plot that also may have implications for a possible sequel. This might have been a possible role for Jolie (if she wanted it), although they went with a more appropriate choice with Thomas.

While some fans may have hoped for Angelina Jolie joining Tomb Raider and meeting the new Lara Croft, the two franchises couldn't be more different. The new movie is far more gritty and real than the previous two films, which had ample camp and gunfights. It was based off of the most recent Tomb Raider game franchise, which puts an emphasis on Lara's survival skills in the wild, and abilities with a bow and arrow.

Tomb Raider is in theaters now. In the meantime, check out our 2018 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

After almost two decades of dust, Tomb Raider has gotten a cinematic upgrade with its latest reboot. Lara Croft is about to return to our screens, and adventure is coming with her. But is said adventure worthy of the ultimate treasure -- a stellar 3D conversion?! Well, before you head out to the theater, let us help you determine how you'll be spending your time on the island where Lara's legend begins. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to ponder that time-tested question, "To 3D, or not to 3D?"

If you're interested on how the film impressed our official reviewer, you can read that summation elsewhere. But for the purposes of this column, we'll be evaluating the scope and quality of the 3D presentation of Tomb Raider. So pack your map, and grab your hat, it's time to cross the window and see if this new reboot deserves the third dimensional treatment.

While Tomb Raider isn't a pitch perfect fit for a 3D conversion, the film still has a lot of aspects that could make for quite the 3D spectacle. With puzzles, traps, and a lot of Lara Croft's POV on display, the eye can feast on some action packed visuals in the third dimension. Though this isn't always the case with Tomb Raider, as there's also a very personal and dramatic component to the film's narrative that isn't exactly 3D ready.

When you've got a movie like Tomb Raider in your hands, there's two main components you need to keep in mind when it comes to 3D: there are good chunks of the adventure in the dark, and things will be shooting towards the camera. And yet, with the rest of the 3D conversion working rather well, those two factors fall a bit behind. For the most part though, the planning and effort into this 3D presentation seems pretty solid.

If a 3D movie throws objects at the audience with great effect, then that means they've penetrated beyond the window and into the theater. To a certain extent, this effect can be felt in Tomb Raider, as there's debris and traps that manage to fly towards your vision during Tomb Raider. Unfortunately, for the most part, those aspects stop short of breaking out of the screen and into the audience's line of sight. So while there's great projectile effects, there's only really one sequence that'll make you flinch, and that's towards the end of the third act.

The depth of picture on display in Tomb Raider is pretty damned amazing. While the spatial reasoning is solid, with characters being separated by clear lines of depth, there are background effects that allow the farthest layer of the picture to look like they're part of the action. Some films feel like they're 3D films playing out in front of static backgrounds, but that's far from the truth with this film.

At the beginning of this film, I really thought Tomb Raider was going to be a solid experience throughout, as the picture was crisp and clear, with very good lighting in its employ. Of course, this hope was dashed when the film started entering darker visual territory. By time the adventure shifts to the jungles and tombs of the film's action, Tomb Raider finds its image obscured by the dimming effect of the 3D glasses you're required to wear throughout the film. This makes some of the scenes in the film's action packed climax almost unwatchable, and spoils the promise the film built up early on.

Blurriness in a 3D conversion is usually a good sign of how much effort went into the manipulation of the image into the 3D medium.With that in mind, Tomb Raider has some pretty exceptional blur once you take your glasses off. There are very few instances where you'll catch the picture looking even close to 2D, and even then that serves as more of an anchor for the rest of the picture to work its magic around. But the majority of this film is presented at some level of blur or another, from the subtle to the pronounced.

With any good 3D movie, there's a period of adjustment that helps bring the viewer's eyesight on board with ease. Tomb Raider doesn't have that transition period, as the film jumps head first into the world of the Croft family, and has quite a bit of action from the word go. Naturally, your eyes might be a little confused in the beginning, but buy the end, the film stabilizes and allows its audience to keep up with the images being shown. By time the film's action heavy third act kicks in, it's smooth sailing, minus the brightness issues.

Tomb Raider has a pretty well-done 3D conversion, despite some problems in both brightness and lack of assets being thrown out at the audience. It's one of the crispest pictures I've seen in a 3D presentation, and it manages to make even smaller, personal moments look remarkable.

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Video game movies don't have sterling reputations in Hollywood. While some may argue that there have been a handful of solid video game adaptations over the years, the consensus among many mainstream moviegoers seems to be that there's a video game movie curse. With such an atmosphere surrounding the genre, one may assume that it would discourage Alicia Vikander from signing on as Lara Croft in Roar Uthaug's Tomb Raider reboot. However, in a recent interview with CinemaBlend, Vikander explained that she didn't think about the video game movie curse while shooting the film because would have only distracted her. The Oscar-winner said:

Focusing on the negative in any situation can lead to anxiety and paralysis, so Alicia Vikander simply didn't address the concept of a video game movie curse in her approach to portraying Lara Croft. Instead, she focused her attention on the elements of the story that appealed to her as an actress and as a burgeoning action star, with her only real concern coming from the fact that Angelina Jolie had already explored this territory with her work on Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life.

With all of that said, Alicia Vikander's questions eventually received definitive answers. Though she initially questioned the rationale behind making new Tomb Raider movies, she understood the value of returning to the franchise once introduced to the 2013 reboot series from which this film takes ample inspiration. Vikander continued:

In that regard, Tomb Raider is already trying to do something different from other Tomb Raider movies and other video game movies. The film aims to tell an origin story in the vein of classic hero origins like Casino Royale and Wonder Woman as much as it captures the feeling of the games, and that aim to do something different with the video game genre ultimately lured her in for the role. Now it's a matter of waiting to see how audiences respond to it.

On that note, audiences will get a chance to see Alicia Vikander kick some serious ass as Lara Croft when Tomb Raider debuts this weekend on March 16. Keep an eye out for all of CinemaBlend's great coverage of the film, and head over to our 2018 movie premiere guide to see what other major motion pictures are set to debut this year.

Alicia Vikander has talked a lot about the training she underwent leading into the filming of her upcoming movie Tomb Raider. The actress put on 12 pounds of muscle and did a lot of cross-training, including rock climbing and swimming, to get fit for the role. She had to do plenty of action sequences during filming after putting on all that muscle, but recently Vikander revealed that the hardest thing to shoot was not even the sort of scene that she anticipated. She said that filming the water scenes almost caused her to give up, noting,

If you've caught the trailer for Tomb Raider, you've probably already seen Alicia Vikander's Lara Croft take off in a boat. She's looking into her late father's work and this means journeying to a mysterious island through storm-laden waters. Obviously the rough water would be difficult to shoot in, but Vikander also made it clear a few months ago that the water scenes were particularly got to the point where they were a bit scary. At one point, she even mentioned having to re-film scenes because she got too cold that she "turned too blue" for the camera. Now, she's speaking out, noting these scenes were the hardest to film for the movie.

We've heard Tomb Raider even filmed water scenes at the London venue for Olympic rafting, but Alicia Vikander revealed that the water scenes were the most difficult action sequences to shoot while speaking to Variety at the movie's premiere. If you've looked into the film at all, you probably noticed from all of the footage we've glimpsed that the movie has plenty of action sequences, including some really cool-looking stuff in a tomb. Vikander has been clear that the character of Lara Croft has been around for 22 years and that she feels there is room for multiple versions of the character in the pop culture landscape, noting her character will be different than the Angeline Jolie iteration. And now we only have a few more days to wait and see how the movie itself pans out.

If you are pumped for the new take on the popular video game character, you can catch Tomb Raider starting on March 16, or take a look at some of the critical reactions for the film, here. In addition, if you'd like to know more about the upcoming film, you can take a look at our full guide.

Lara Croft's rebooted origin story is set to get a third chapter this fall, as a website for the game accidentally reveals more details than it intended to, including the name and launch date. Get ready for Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

If you head on over to the official Tomb Raider website, you'll see a stark black splash page with what appears to be an eclipse at its center. Under that, we find an announcement that something will be revealed tomorrow, March 15, at 6 a.m. PDT.

Considering the fact that the new Tomb Raider series has been doing really well and we already knew that a third game was on the way, it's easy to jump to the conclusion that an official announcement for said game is what we'll get tomorrow. But it turns out that we don't have to make any such leaps, as the folks over at Kotaku did a little bit of digging. They're reporting that, if you just take a gander at the site's HTML, you'll find the Shadow of the Tomb Raider name, as well as a quote that this is the "climactic finale to Lara's origin story," and that it will be available Sept. 14 of this year.

On the one hand, it's kind of a bummer to have these details before the actual reveal. On the other hand, we're not sure why this type of information would be hidden at such a base level if anyone was hoping to keep it secret until tomorrow morning. As noted in the comments of the original post, there are actually a few more details available within the site's HTML, including the fact that the various versions of the game, incentives, etc. will be revealed on April 27. Also, a puzzle is mentioned, which might reference an interactive portion of the website set to go live tomorrow. We'll just have to wait and see.

What's interesting about this latest Tomb Raider game, outside of the fact that it will wrap up Lara Croft's formative tale, is that it's not coming from the studio that made the first two games in the series. Tomb Raider and Rise of the Tomb Raider were produced by Crystal Dynamics, both receiving quite a bit of critical and commercial success. Shadow, though, is being developed by Eidos Montreal, the folks behind games like Thief and the recent Deus Ex offerings. As we noted last year, the team at Crystal Dynamics is working on the new Avengers game for Square Enix, which we wouldn't be surprised to learn more about at this year's E3 event in June. Obviously, working on a Marvel project didn't leave them a lot of time to do a third Tomb Raider game, hence the development shuffle.

Despite the mild spoilers we've already received, we figure tomorrow's announcement will feature some fresh details concerning the new Tomb Raider, so stay tuned.

While the Tomb Raider video game series has been going strong for more than two decades now, particularly since it was relaunched in 2013, it's been 15 years since the property last graced the big screen. This weekend, Tomb Raider makes its big return to theaters, only instead of Angelina Jolie reprising Lara Croft for a third time, Alicia Vikander is leading a reboot based off the more recent Tomb Raider video games. Reviews for Tomb Raider are now trickling in, but as for its commercial performance, the movie is predicted to open in the United States somewhere between $23 million and $25 million.

This is a decent haul for a movie of this scale, which was made off a $90 million budget. However, it may not be enough to crown Tomb Raider this weekend's box office champion. because according to Deadline, Black Panther is expected around $27 million in its fifth weekend. To say that the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe movie has been a critical and commercial success would be an understatement, and regarding the latter, it has collected $571 million domestically and crossed the $1 billion mark globally. So while Tomb Raider is on track to carve out a nice chunk of the box office, it will need to exceed expectations if it wants to surpass Black Panther.

Even if Tomb Raider doesn't end up performing exceptionally in the U.S., its foreign performance will hopefully be able to ensure that the movie makes a profit. It has already opened in Asia (with the exception of China) and made over $14 million. Along with Black Panther, Tomb Raider's domestic competition this weekend includes A Wrinkle in Time, which opened last week and is expected to take in around $17 million, as well as smaller opening fare like Love, Simon and I Can Only Imagine, which are projected to make $10 million and between $2 million and $4 million, respectively. However, March's remaining weeks are bringing fellow blockbusters Pacific Rim Uprising and Ready Player One into the proverbial game, so Tomb Raider is certainly going to face an uphill battle the longer it stays in theaters.

Inspired by the 2013 video game reboot, the new Tomb Raider movie follows Alicia Vikander's Lara Croft as she fights for survival on the island where her father disappeared years earlier and works to stop a mysterious organization called Trinity from weaponizing an ancient power. The main cast also includes Dominic West, Walton Goggins, Daniel Wu, Kristin Scott Thomas, Hannah John-Kamen, Antonio Aakeel, Derek Jacobi and Nick Frost.

Tomb Raider opens in theaters this Friday, March 16, and be sure to read CinemaBlend's review of the movie. To learn what else is being released this year, look through our 2018 release schedule.

Second chances are a dime a dozen in the entertainment industry. What didn't work the first time -- or, what worked very well, but then tapered off -- frequently gets a new opportunity for a fresh start. That creative cycle is perfectly personified by the Tomb Raider IP, which launched as a video game for the PlayStation in 1996, triggered numerous video game sequels, inspired a silver-screen adaptation (starring Angelina Jolie) which ALSO got a sequel, was rebooted in 2013 as a reintroduction to young Lara Croft, and now sees that series getting a movie version starring Alicia Vikander in the role.

That's a lot of tombs, and a whole lot of raiding. Your interest in this latest endeavor may vary depending on how many hours you've logged following Lara Croft on her various adventures, and how much leniency you grant the franchise. Because where my generation was blessed with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, this film strikes me more as Lara Croft and the Temple of Dumb.

Director Roar Uthaug (The Wave) treats Tomb Raider as Batman Begins for Lara Croft (Alicia Vikander), introducing our eventual adventurer as a scrappy London bike messenger who hasn't yet accepted her destiny as a global expeditioner, and seeker of antique treasures. Which is a fine approach, and one that works as we establish Lara's environment. The script tells us that Lara's a thrill-seeker (she kickboxes another female fighter and participates in an elaborate bike chase around London, all in the first 15 minutes of the film), though she's compensating for the mysterious disappearance of her father, Lord Richard Croft (Dominic West), who one day left on a business trip and told young Lara, "I'll be back before you know I'm gone." Seven years later, Richard's still missing, and Lara won't accept that he might be dead.

That's smart, because clues begin to surface that Lord Richard was on to something bigger. His work surrounded the ancient burial of Himiko, a mythical queen who reportedly possessed supernatural powers. Richard tracked Himiko to the middle of the Devil's Sea. Now his daughter, desperate to prove her father might still be alive, follows his trail, finding danger and death-defying obstacles along the way.

Tomb Raider is a faithful adaptation of the 2013 video game reboot, which itself was the tenth title in the ongoing gaming series. Alicia Vikander is a prim and polished Lara, owning the physicality of the role while also deftly recreating, sometimes beat for beat, the action maneuvers from the game. A suitable subtitle for the film easily could have been Tomb Raider: How Many Different Ways Can We Physically Torture Alicia Vikander, for the actress takes a beating on this adventure. I wanted to wave the white flag on her behalf nearly 30 minutes before the end credits rolled.

And yet, for all of its dedication to breathing life into the game, the movie Tomb Raider doesn't establish its own sense of adventure, or dial into a genuine rush or tingle that comes with watching an action movie. The film competently restages sequences from the game, yet the set pieces -- aside from one memorable progression involving an airplane and a waterfall -- lack invention. Watching Tomb Raider also convinced me that the planned Uncharted movie probably should be shelved, for I see it facing a number of similar obstacles. Archaeological puzzles, which are fun to crack when you are controlling Lara Croft in the game, are chaotic and silly when translated to the screen. And while I can't fully critique the movie without ruining what Lara finds on the central island of the movie, I will just say that the mystery of Himiko and the threat that she presents, is comically bad, and the movie's third act -- even with the aid of wonderful character actor Walton Goggins -- cannot recover from the ludicrous twists that occur in Himiko's tomb.

How ironic that real-life couple Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender unleashed dueling video game properties into the world (his was 2016's misfire, Assassin's Creed), and both ended up being marginally competent but ultimately muddled action thrillers that mishandled their game's central mythology and failed to launch a franchise -- even though launching a franchise was clearly the goal of both films. When it comes to movies adapted from video games, the argument always boils down to this, "Is it more fun to actually play the adventure, or is it more fun to sit in a theater and watch the game be played for you?" Tomb Raider, like so many films to come before it, casts a vote in the Play It column.

Warning: possible mild spoilers ahead for Tomb Raider! Don't read any further if you want to go into the reboot completely blind!

For many, Lara Croft remains inextricable from the imagery of a woman dual-wielding two large-caliber handguns while making her way through a crypt. That has been the go-to look of Lara for decades, but don't expect to see her blasting away at bad guys in Roar Uthaug's Tomb Raider. In fact, she never fires a gun in the movie. To figure out why the film went with that bold move, CinemaBlend recently sat down with Tomb Raider producer Graham King at the film's press day in Los Angeles, and he said that it was all about keeping things grounded and realistic. As King explained:

This incarnation of the Tomb Raider saga is a clear origin story modeled after the 2013 reboot game. In the spirit of telling the tale of how Lara goes on to become a tomb raider, the folks behind the movie wanted to show a survivalist heroine who isn't a trained killer and not a soldier. She's a tough woman with an affinity for mixed martial arts, archery, and a wide variety of extreme sports, but she's not prepared for real combat and therefore never picks up a weapon that she's not trained to use.

That's not to say that there aren't hints at Lara's classic pistols in the movie. The trailers have already shown sequences in which she playfully holds her two badass handguns, which seems to suggest that Tomb Raider at least lays the groundwork for that Lara to eventually show up in a sequel. It's not a matter of never letting her use a gun; it's just not right for this particular story.

Taking the guns out of Lara's hand is a big step for the Tomb Raider franchise as a whole. The original Angelina Jolie-led Tomb Raider films leaned heavily into the gunplay to stage many of their action sequences, and the 2013 reboot game even allowed Lara to eventually get her hands on firearms in the later levels of the story. That said, in the process of translating that grounded and gritty Lara Croft to the silver screen, everyone involved in the 2018 movie ultimately decided that there were more realistic and exciting ways to turn her into a weapon without her pulling a trigger.

Alicia Vikander's Lara Croft will go on her first deadly adventure when Tomb Raider debuts in theaters this weekend on March 16. Keep an eye out for all of CinemaBlend's awesome Tomb Raider coverage and then head over to our movie premiere guide to see what other films are set to debut this year!