Alicia Vikander Reportedly May Not Return For A Tomb Raider Sequel

Another potential film franchise seems to be biting the dust before it even took off, as a new report has claimed that Warner Bros. are not looking to make a follow-up to Tomb Raider with star Alicia Vikander.

A report from Crazy Days and Nights states that, following the box office failure of the film, “the studio doesn’t want to make a sequel, at least with her.” The report has little else by way of information, and without any kind of studio confirmation or any word from anyone involved with the film, this should be regarded more as a rumor for now. But if this is true, it would make sense.

While a current box office take of $212 million is nothing to sneeze at, for a movie which cost $94 million to make, and a robust marketing campaign behind it, it’s natural for a major studio like Warner Bros. to be disappointed with its results. Especially coupled with the movie’s middling critical and audience reception – it has a 49% score on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 65% audience score – and its failure in the domestic box office, taking in just $42 million so far, amounting to just 20% of its total box office.

Source: Digital Spy

Warner Bros. may have targeted foreign markets more so than the domestic market with Tomb Raider, but putting too many chips on foreign markets like this could easily backfire. Universal had a similar strategy with Warcraft, a $160 million movie that made 89% of its total box office intake of $433.6 million from outside the United States. That was supposed to start a franchise, yet so far, there’s been no movement on a sequel.

It wouldn’t be surprising if neither Warner Bros. nor Vikander want to continue. Warner Bros. might be worried by audiences associating the film and its failures with her, seeing as her name and face is featured prominently in the movie’s promotional campaign. And as for Vikander, a young actress with an Academy Award to her name like her could definitely find something better to star in than a mediocre video game movie franchise.

Warner Bros. don’t exactly have a lack of franchises at the moment, with the DC Extended Universe, the five-movie Fantastic Beasts series, and the Conjuring universe still going strong (for the most part), but it’s still bad news for them to lose a possible Tomb Raider franchise. That first, and now potentially only, film laid a lot of groundwork for sequels, setting up a powerful evil organization to take down and a villain for the sequel. It even had a little stinger after the end titles with Lara Croft purchasing her two iconic pistols, wearing her signature hairstyle. It would really be a shame for them, and for fans of the franchise, if all that buildup would amount to nothing.

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