Tomb Raider Walton Goggins Reveals Villain’s Motives

Walton Goggins, who plays the villain in this year’s Tomb Raider film, opens up about his character’s motivations as he clashes with Lara Croft (Alicia Vikander) over the contents of a tomb he has spent the last seven years searching for. Goggins’ character, Mathias Vogel, was featured heavily in the second full Tomb Raider trailer, which released yesterday.

Announced in 2016, Tomb Raider is the third film adaption of the successful video game franchise of the same name. The new movie has no connection to the last two Tomb Raiderfilms that starred Angelina Jolie. Directed by Roar Uthaug and starring Academy Award-winning actress Vikander as Lara Croft, the reboot is an origin story based off the 2013 video game, which was a dark and gritty tale of survival set on an island. As Lara Croft struggles to solve the mystery of her father’s death, she will have to contend with Goggins’ Mathias Vogel, an archaelogist and a rival of her father’s who has been searching for a hidden tomb for seven years, but without any luck. Mathias’ difficulties have made him both angry and desperate.

In an interview with IGN, Walton Goggins talked in-depth about his role in Tomb Raider. Goggins says Mathias feels that he has wasted years of his life looking for this tomb, which explains what makes him so angry. Mathias is so exhausted by his search that he “will do anything” to get off the island. Goggins adds that the audience meets Mathias “literally on a Wednesday of the longest week of his life.”

«I suppose his vendetta, if there is one, really comes from anger and frustration at the last seven years of his life, at the mundane kind of aspect of his life, which is looking for this tomb, you know? He’s wasted his life and has missed his family, looking for this thing that Lara Croft’s father had the coordinates for.»

Though the trailer indicates that Mathias will be the film’s main villain, Goggins wouldn’t confirm his role in the story. Instead, he describes Mathias as a “cog in the wheel“, which suggests that other villains more important than him could be involved. Fans of the video game will note that the evil organization know as the Trinity is often the one pulling the strings. The Trinity is also confirmed to have a presence in the film, which makes it a major possibility that Mathias won’t be Lara Croft’s only enemy.

Since Tomb Raider will be this version of Lara Croft’s first adventure, the character will understandably have her hands full just with Mathias. The involvement of other high-ranking members of the Trinity will surely make Lara’s journey all the more challenging.