Dominic West Will Play Lara Croft’s Father in the ‘Tomb Raider’ Reboot
Resident Evil is ending, and it’s time for another video game movie franchise to rise in its place. Enter Tomb Raider, a series that’s been around in film form since 2001, and is about to get rebooted. Alicia Vikander will be playing titular adventurer Lara Croft, and today we’ve learned that her archaeologist father will be portrayed by none other than The Wire’s Dominic West.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, West has signed on to play Lord Richard Croft, an aristocrat and archaeologist who’s been around the Tomb Raider storyline since its inception. The new movie will be a kind of origin story, following Lara as she sets out to complete her father’s research to clear his name. Think National Treasure: Book of Secrets. THR notes that West has played Vikander’s father before — in the 2014 film Testament of Youth — so they probably have some good family chemistry going already.
West will play a considerably more dashing Richard Croft than Jon Voight (hey, another National Treasure connection!) did in the original Angelina Jolie-starring movies, but maybe his Richard is meant to be younger? Or maybe they’ll age him with makeup?
Walton Goggins and Daniel Wu have also been tapped to star in the movie — Goggins as the film’s villain, and Wu as a fellow adventurer and ship captain(!) who helps Croft along in her quest.
Tomb Raider will be directed by human-dragon hybrid Roar Uthaug and will hit theaters March 16, 2018.