Parks and Creation alum Audrey Plaza might be best known for her comedic chops, but her performance in the upcoming action-packed crime thriller Emily the Criminal, which premiered early in the year at Sundance Film Festival, was compelling enough to have her colleague Edgar Wright (Baby Driver) thinking that she will be a good fit for the next Tomb Raider movie as its lead heroine Lara Croft.
Appearing on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon to promote her film Emily the Criminal, Plaza discussed her experience starring and producing the film as well as other projects, and made an additional revelation of how a photo from the movie used as the cover for an issue of MovieMaker had Wright thinking that she had been cast as the next Lara Croft. In the said photo, Plaza's titular character from the upcoming crime drama is sporting a stern look and dressed in a tank top — Lara Croft's signature outfit.
When Fallon asked Plaza if she would favor more action movie roles in the future, she hinted at how compelling her first performance in the genre was by revealing how Wright thought she had been tapped to play the athletic archeologist. “My friend Edgar Wright actually saw that and texted me and said, ‘Oh my god, you’re the new Lara Croft? You’re the new Tomb Raider?’ That’s the character in ‘Tomb Raider.’ And I was like, ‘No, Edgar. That’s my movie, ‘Emily the Criminal,'” Plaza said. She continued, saying that "[Wright] genuinely thought I was cast as the new ‘Tomb Raider.’ And then I looked it up and they actually are casting this role right now. And I was like, ‘Well there you go. The new Tomb Raider, whatever.'” Host Jimmy Fallon also buys the idea of Plaza as the next Lara Croft, as he nodded in approval after holding up a photo of Plaza from the MovieMaker cover beside Angelina Jolie's Lara Croft.
Irma Vep's Alice Vikander had in 2018 become the next Lara Croft and was set to reprise her role in an upcoming sequel planned to be created by Misha Green (Lovecraft Country). However, Vikander exited the role after MGM, who owned the rights to the franchise for over 9 years, returned the IP to producer Graham King. Regardless, it would seem as though a Tomb Raider sequel is still highly likely, given Plaza's discovery that casting is currently ongoing to fill the role.
Plaza's Emily The Criminal premiered to rave reviews at Sundance on January 24 and will have a limited theatrical release in a few days from August 12. The movie is the directorial debut of John Patton Fordm who also penned the screenplay. The movie follows Emily whose desperation to pay off mounting student loans drives her into a life of crime.
Check out Plaza's appearance on the Tonight Show below: