Daniel Wu joins the ‘Tomb Raider’ reboot as an ally to Alicia Vikander’s Lara Croft
The Lara Croft franchise will get another try as a Tomb Raider reboot is in the works with Alicia Vikander as the popular video game character. Now news comes that Into the Badlands star Daniel Wu has just joined the cast.
Roar Uthaug (The Wave) will direct with Justified star Walton Goggins set to play the film’s antagonist.
Variety broke news of the Tomb Raider Daniel Wu casting, noting that he’ll play Lu Ren, described as “a ship captain who partners with Croft on a quest to find her father.”
This appears to be a new character, created for the film.
Variety recounts that “Though born and raised in the U.S., Wu first rose to fame in Hong Kong and China as a protégé of Jackie Chan’s, starring in dozens of Chinese-language films over the past couple of decades. But his profile has gone up in Hollywood over the past couple of years as well. He’s probably best known here as the taciturn lead of AMC’s martial arts fantasy drama Into the Badlands, and he had a major role as the villain in this summer’s Warcraft. His other credits include Europa Report and The Man with the Iron Fists.”
The Tomb Raider reboot had been in development for years but really started to pick up steam around 2015 when Warner Bros. set this version in motion with producer Graham King.
“Well this is kind of what we call a ‘back to the roots story’. This is a young Lara Croft in search to see if her father is dead or alive, so it has a very emotional part to it and I think that’s what Alicia found so interesting about it,” King explained about the new film. “I think the storytelling is really good and I think we’ve got the right crew and a great director and I think it’s going to be really fun making a film like this.”
Tomb Raider hits theaters March 16, 2018.
