The new Tomb Raider movie will feature a new Lara Croft

Tomb Raider’s movie rights are for the taking. According to TheWrap, the Amazon-owned MGM waited too long to make a sequel to its 2018 Tomb Raider film, liberating the rights for the next Hollywood studio that wants to take a stab at creating an adaption of the long-running video game franchise.

Several studios are currently engaged in a bidding war to snap up the Tomb Raider rights. And since the license come with no obligation to retain the same cast and crew, the next Tomb Raider film could be a total that passes the Lara Croft baton to yet another actress.

The 2018 Tomb Raider starred Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft and was met with mixed reviews that criticized its weak portrayal of the series’ namesake archaeologist. MGM’s Tomb Raider seems to blend elements from the 2013 game with the early 2000s Tomb Raider film adaptions starring Angelina Jolie.

MGM originally planned to release a sequel to its film in 2021, but the COVID-19 pandemic likely got in the way of production. In 2020, Ben Wheaton, the movie’s director, said he was still committed to making the film, but it was “in the mists of COVID.” It’s possible that Amazon’s acquisition of MGM in March also had something to do with the studio’s decision not to greenlight another Tomb Raider movie.