LONDON, March 21 (UPI) — Daisy Ridley may indeed star in a Lara Croft: Tomb Raider reboot.
The 23-year-old English actress confirmed she’s in early talks to play Lara after being linked to the much-hyped project this month.
“[There] have been conversations,” the star told The Hollywood Reporter at the Empire Awards on Sunday before clarifying she hasn’t been offered the role.
“I’m waiting for someone to say, ‘I want you, let’s do it,'” she said, also revealing there isn’t a script yet. “[I would] absolutely [do it], I’m trying to fill up my calendar.”
Ridley, who plays Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, has a strong proponent in co-star John Boyega, who portrays Finn. The 24-year-old actor voiced his support for Ridley at the ceremony, saying he immediately envisioned her as Lara.
“I played Tomb Raider the game, it’s a new take and I think the movies are going to be based on that version,” he speculated. “I texted Daisy [and] was like, ‘This is you!’ and ‘You need to get on that because you could be Lara Croft.’ She should be.”
Angelina Jolie played Lara in the 2001 movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and its 2003 sequel, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. The films are based on the Tomb Raider video game series, which debuted in 1996.
“I think making Lara Croft feel like a real human being, that’s definitely something we want to bring to the big screen as well,” director Roar Uthaug told IGN this month. “I think we’ll want to make people relate to Lara as a character.”
Uthaug confirmed the reboot will be an origin story, similar to the 2013 video game Tomb Raider. Ridley is presently filming Star Wars: Episode VIII, which opens in theaters Dec. 15, 2017.
