The recent Oscar winner for The Danish Girl will resurrect the role famously played by Angelina Jolie in a new take on the action heroine

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Alicia Vikander is booting up to play video game heroine Lara Croft in a new Tomb Raider movie.

The Swedish actor, who won an Oscar for best supporting actress for her performance in The Danish Girl, is following in the footsteps of Angelina Jolie, who accepted the role shortly after winning her best supporting actress Oscar for Girl, Interrupted in 1999. Jolie starred as the action heroine in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and its sequel, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life.

The movie, which will be directed by Roar Uthaug (whose last film was action movie The Wave), will star Vikander as a young and untested Croft, in what the Hollywood Reporter describes as an origin story that tracks Croft’s first adventure.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens star Daisy Ridley had been rumored to be in contention for the part.

Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander: 'I never thought I'd do films in English' Read more

Lara Croft will be Vikander’s most high-profile role to date. The actor is also reportedly being considered to replace Rooney Mara as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’s heroine Lisbeth Salander in Sony’s forthcoming adaptation of The Girl in the Spider’s Web.

Based on the long-running video game franchise, Tomb Raider follows the English archaeologist Lara Croft through a series of adventures heavily inspired by Indiana Jones. The video game series was recently rebooted by game developer Square Enix with 2013’s Tomb Raider, which depicted Croft’s first adventure as an archaeology student, and its follow-up Rise Of The Tomb Raider.

Vikander has three films due for release this year: the historical drama Tulip Fever; her romance with Michael Fassbender, The Light Between Oceans; and this summer’s Jason Bourne.