Casting News: Daniel Wu Joins TOMB RAIDER Reboot
[Header image by Gage Skidmore]
Fans of Into the Badlands will be pleased to know they’ll be seeing a familiar face in the latest reboot of Tomb Raider. Daniel Wu is set to join Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina, The Danish Girl), who will be playing Lara Croft in this adaptation. Wu, who played Gul’dan in Warcraft: The Beginning, has been gaining popularity from his portrayal of the lead character, Sunny, in AMC’s Into the Badlands, which is set to return with its second season this Spring.
Tomb Raider is currently scheduled for to release on March 16, 2018. Warner Bros. has teamed up with MGM to bring the latest adaptation of the popular video game series to life. Graham King’s GK Films, who acquired the film rights in 2011, will be partnering with the studios to create the film. King will also serve as producer with Roar Uthaug directing and Geneva Robertson-Dworet writing the script.
According to Variety, Wu is set to play Lu Ren, “a ship captain who partners with Croft on a quest to find her father.” Walton Goggins (Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight) is also on the roster as the film’s villain. This adaptation is slated to be about Croft’s origins, focusing on her first expedition. Though the reboot has been in development for years, it wasn’t until Warner Bros. got involved that it really started coming together.
The first game in the Tomb Raider series was released in 1996. The games follow Lara Croft, an explorer who travels the world searching for lost artifacts and encountering dangerous villains. Two other feature films, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003), grossed $431 million worldwide for Paramount.
